Tea break! ^^
Hi, I'm Bun
Solely personal. Just for fun. :)Pictures are all mine unless credited.
♥ digital art, strawberries, toufu, chocolate, baking.
Beef curry wee~!
Bought beef from supermarket instead of my usual chinese meat shop because it was cheaper, haha.
It was chuck instead of shin: much more tender and a brighter red (perhaps fresher? But that doesn’t make sense, since the meat shop cuts the meat in their shop :\).
Anyway, I had to trim SO MUCH fat + waste a lot of time trimming that I don’t think it was worth it. XD And there was still a lot of fat in between the meat that I couldn’t be bothered with, lol.
Everything becomes more daunting when you have to multiply the portions by 5. *gulps*
I’m still trying to figure out the best way to cut up this monster. >_>
Do you think this is right? Half it and remove the core before slicing?
Impossibly, I could only add half the cabbage in. It’s the epitome of value-for-money. The downside is that it is going to sit in my already-cramped fridge for days. :(
And then, I realised I should have added all my spices in first. Because it was so damn hard to stir and a lot of powder would fly out. >_>
It was even more difficult to cook the cabbage this time round because I was determined not to add a lot of water (only added 2 cups), so that my curry wouldn’t be watery. And ended up being very glad I persevered. :D
And then, I realised I should have added all my spices in first. Because it was so damn hard to stir and a lot of powder would fly out. >_>
It was even more difficult to cook the cabbage this time round because I was determined not to add a lot of water (only added 2 cups), so that my curry wouldn’t be watery. And ended up being very glad I persevered. :D
I took a bowl out and added 4 soup-spoon’s worth of yoghurt coz I saw my Indian flatmate do that to her curry once, hahaha.
I think it tasted better, actually. But it also became milder. It would probably have been much better if it was the thick kind of yoghurt. (Mine didn’t have any additives at all—just organic milk and cultures. ;))
I think it tasted better, actually. But it also became milder. It would probably have been much better if it was the thick kind of yoghurt. (Mine didn’t have any additives at all—just organic milk and cultures. ;))
This is the first time I was satisfied with my curry. Not good enough to feed others yet, but finally getting somewhere. :D
Roti prata, anyone?
Roti prata, anyone?
Made a cheesy soup with milk and the previous night’s leftovers. Oh, and with cheese. And extra cheese.
Wait. There’s no such thing as extracheese.
Quinoa balls!
Haven’t experimented with cooking for a while now. :) Gonna make quinoa balls! (You know, like rice balls, haha.)
Button mushrooms, cheese, courgette, carrots, garlic and linseed!
No idea how grounded linseed + water can substitute eggs, but they do become really gooey after leaving to stand for a few minutes. Look at how it doesn’t run down the slope!
1st batch part a: 20minutes. The mixture was dry and the balls hardly held their shapes. Also, they all cracked. To release heat, I guess. :(
Some with curry powder, some with herbs, some with black pepper. All yummy. ^^
Part b: after another 20minutes. They tasted like hash browns omg!!! :D :D :D I guess carbohydrates all taste the same?
2nd batch: I added more linseed mixture in and thought maybe cheese would help in holding the shape too, but since I changed the linseed proportion, I should leave some balls cheeseless to act as control.
Part a: after 20 minutes. Turns out the cheese didn’t help much. In fact, a higher proportion of the cheesed ones cracked (and the cheese filled the gap, haha) than the controls.
The results. XD
Cheesed or not, more linseed or not, 40 minutes hash-brown-wannabes tasted best. ;)
Was in the mood for some egg salad! :D
Surprisingly, steamed lettuce tasted better. :)
Cooking round-up!
Roasted beetroot! They were no longer pipin’ hot by the time I finished peeling them, lol.
Ironically, I never peeled the carrots bought from supermarkets, but peeled these organic carrots because I couldn’t get the soil off them no matter how much I scrubbed. >_>
Their freshness made a difference, though. :) They were sweeter when raw and much easier to chop. The supermarket ones were always SO TOUGH.
I got crazy and tried eating the carrot tops, though. It wasn’t good, I’d admit. XD They had this “dry” taste and left a layer of something on my teeth. Uck!
Tried cooking fish curry again too. Without all the herbs (spices only), but without tomatoes as well because they were twice as expensive. O_O
The taste was okay this time round, but the texture… sigh.
Kelp noodles!
Okay, ‘twas a lie. :P Those were normal dried kelp from a Chinese supermarket, not the latest fad. XD
I was keeping these colourful capsicums for stuffing. And realised they were getting wrinkly. It had been two weeks since I bought them! :X
Anyway, CHEEZE! :D
The Great Baking/Microwave Experiment!
Ever heard of a mug cake before?
I chanced upon this 4-ingredient cake (Paleo Mug Cake by The Wannabe Chef) which didn’t use flour or sugar, so I jumped on it immediately. It was cooked in a microwave, though. :\
Attempt 1: It was too bitter! Looking at how non-over-ripened my banana was, I guess this wasn’t a surprise. :(
Attempt 2: I intended to give them away for a pair of 2-year-old twins’ birthday, hence bought milk chocolate buttons. (Sigh.) The batter turned out really watery and, to my horror, the cake disintegrated! (Also, note how unclean the mug is; the cake sticks!)
I sent the ugly cakes anyway. :P
Attempt 3: One for a friend whom I borrow a bike from and thought I lost it, and another for a friend who found my bike and saved my life. :D
I used lesser chocolate this time, but it was still too rich, according to one. The other gave an unethusiastic “delicious” reply. :\ People should stop being so polite to me when I’m ravaging their tastebuds, lol.
Attempt 4: I really, really would like to eliminate the use of processed sugar, though, so I kept that banana for… more than a week, I think. I thought that would have been brown enough, but no. >_> (I even added strawberries to make it sweeter!)
Also, I had a theory. ;) I think what happened to the twins’ cake was that I allowed the cakes to cool in the mug, causing uneven contractions and hence disintegration. So, I scoped one out and left one inside. (Note how explosive the batter was in the microwave. So glad it didn’t splatter onto the microwave!)
I think I’m right. :D
Attempt 5: THIS IS THE MOST DISGUSTING BANANA I HAVE EVER TOUCHED.
It still was beautiful inside, though. Phew.
I have never liked using the microwave, to be honest. So I baked it this time round! :D The over-riped banana was so soft I barely needed any force to mash it! And I think it made the batter more watery too. :)
This was for another friend (my flatmate, actually) who frequently shared her food with me, so I added just a bit of chipped chocolate buttons to one side, just in case. I marked it with the strawberry, haha.
I thought, well, the batter spreads to such a thin layer, it should bake pretty fast, right?
180°C for 8 minutes was just too short! :P I felt so dumb when I turned the cake out, lol. There was chocolate liquefaction, by the way. XD
I tasted the non-chocolate side; it was slightly better in sweetness, but definitely not enough for a cake. My friend seemed to like even the more bitter non-chocolate side, though; she was so happy to eat the whole thing, hahaha.
Results:I’m out of bananas for now, so I guess this is a temporary end to the experiment. :( So far, I have never received (truly) positive feedback for this, but I really like the base ingredients (no flour/sugar!), so I’m definitely keeping this for modifications in future!
Stewing beef
I bought half a kg of beef and a cabbage so heavy it hurts my arm to carry it. O_O I’m just feeding myself.
1: Stir fried the beef and garlic in butter
2: Could only add in half the cabbage at first
3: Tried my best to add in the whole cabbage, but it was getting difficult to stir :(
4: Still had a quarter left, sigh D:
I thought it didn’t really taste good, though. Kinda bland, somehow. So I recooked it the next night with leek, kelp and herbs! ;) Better now!
Pancakes again!
Yes, again. XD I tried to create one with ground linseed, oat bran (I don’t have flour), yoghurt and milk. Oh, and cocoa powder for one of it, just to try, hehe.
Didn’t turn out great. The mixture was too stiff to spread, but I worry that they wouldn’t hold together if it gets too watery because the ingredients are all coarse-grained. :\
On a side note, the one with cocoa powder looks like a sausage patty, haha!
Sprouting chickpeas!
I sprouted chickpeas!! :D :D :D When was the last time you grew a seed?
This was after about 2 days. What a huge range of growth rates they have, haha.
Of course, I roasted them. :P I wanted them crispy, hehe. Built high walls for them so that they can’t hop all over the oven. I took them out to shake every 10 minutes.
Attempt 1 wasn’t that great. Also, all the tails got burnt first. Sprouted chickpeas weren’t meant for roasting. >_>
Attempt 2: Shortened the time from 30 minutes to 23! The roasting was very uneven: some crispy, some a tad chewy. And some already burnt. D:
Also, what’s up with not-very-burnt chickpea with a super disgusting opening to the tail? O_O
Curry curry!
This was the first time I cooked enough for a few days! :D
Probably shouldn’t have added every single herb and spice I owned, though. They didn’t complement one another that well, haha.
CHEEZE! :D
I first peppered and wrapped the fish in foil, baked it at 200°C for 15min, then transferred to a plate, added the cheese and baked for another 3min. The cheese didn’t brown, though, so I upped the temperature to 250°C for another 2min, hehe.
From the direction of cheese flow, you can tell that my oven wasn’t horizontal. XD
Egg pie!
Actually, I made it twice, haha. The first time, the cheese melted into the abyss of hell and the egg stuck to the bottom of the pan. Not sure if that was because the pan wasn’t buttered or because the ingredients were too chunky. :\
The second time, I rubbed the pan with butter, hehe. (The leftover lump was beaten into the eggs. ;))
As I was chopping the veggies, I realised there was no way they could all fit into the pan and hence got myself a snack, hehe. My estimation sucks, seriously.
4 eggs + milk couldn’t submerge it all. D: I was so worried the cheese would “disappear” again, so I arranged them into a thick layer in the middle instead of spreading them out.
CHEESE. :D
