Sunday, February 3, 2008

Ikea Swedish Meatballs - Halal version


Hi hi, it's me again. Last Saturday, my sister-in-law and her husband came to our house to learn dreamweaver and photoshop from my husband. So i cooked the halal version of ikea swedish meatball for them. Ikea's swedish meatball uses pork. So all we have to do is to substitute the pork with beef. Very easy to make and u can freeze the meatball and cook it whenever u crave for swedish meatball. Enjoy cooking

Swedish Meatball Ingredients
1) 2 pounds minced lean beef
2) 2 eggs
3) 1 medium chopped onion (Saute the chopped onion in butter and keep aside for use)
4) 1 cup cream (Add in little at a time and mix to make sure the meat dough is not too wet)
5) 1/2 cup of fine bread crumbs (If cream is added too much, can add more crumbs balance the wetness)
6) salt and pepper to taste

Swedish Meatball Steps
1) Mix all the ingredients.
2) Use an electronic mixer or just your hands, but make sure you mix well.
3) Then form little balls, each about 1 inch in diameter (2.5 cm).
4) Pan fry them for about 10 minutes with a little butter or oil in a moderately hot pan. The balls should be able to roll in the pan.
5) Shake the pan gently during cooking to keep them turning.
6) Take them out, put them in a large pot to keep them warm and prepare the Swedish meatball sauce in the same pan. Leave the fat in it!

Ingredients:
1) 1/8 pint cream 2) 1/4 pint beef stock (Can use Knorr Beef Cubes and mix in water)3) 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
4) 1 tbsp white flour
5) 1 tbsp water
6) salt and pepper to taste

Sauce Steps:
1) Swirl out the pan (with the remainding fat from cooking swedish meatball) with boiling beef stock.
2) Add the cream.
3) Add the flour mixed with approx 1 tablepoons of water.
4) Add the seasonings.
5) Simmer until the sauce thickens.

Final step: Serve meatball with sauce, lingonberry jam (can buy from ikea's foodmart) and boiled potatoes

Chinese New Year - Pineapple tarts


Hello. For my family, we celebrate Hari Raya and Chinese New Year. Every year i will make pineapple tarts which recipe is from Phoon Huat. I like the crust taste as it uses custard powder and milk powder to give this extra rich milky taste. Very easy to make and you can get the ingredients from phoon huat's outlet http://www.phoonhuat.com/

Ingredients:
1) 6 egg yolks
2) 1kg cake flour
3) 150g milk powder
4) 75g custard powder
5) 10g vanilla powder
6) 20-60g sugar
7) 750g salted butter (melt at room tempt)
8) 2 packs of PhoonHuat Pineapple paste

Steps:
1) Mix all ingredients. Knead into dough. Chill in fridge.
2) Wrap the pineapple paste (Red Man brand, Phoon Huat) with chilled dough.
3) Coat the tarts with egg yolk.
4) Bake at 150-180oC for 20-25 min.

PS: One pack of pineapple paste can make about 100 balls of pineapple tarts.

Tang Tea House - more pix...



Hi all. The previous post i recommended Tang Tea House and didn't post any pix. Yesterday we went down for late dinner and took some pix to share with you. We ordered satay (open at 6pm), seafood hor fan (for my husband), fish slice soup noodle (for my son), beef tang hoon (for me) and lime sour plum drink. It was crowded with so many people (muslims and chinese). So hope the pix will delight your palate...



Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Hungry for Halal Chinese cuisine? Bedok Area

Chinese New Year is round the corner and some muslim converts will be looking for restaurants where they serve nice and affordable halal chinese food. So this is one place u can reserve for your reunion dinner. Tang Tea House is located in Bedok and they serve more than 100 dishes. They also serve steamboat which is the most common dish to eat during CNY. I've tried their Hongkong breakfast set (2 inches thick toast with butter on top) and Hongkong style milk tea (which is very milky taste). My husband is a fan of noodles and he gives 2 thumbs-up for their noodle. Their porridge is very nice too. It may look plain but it has one unique taste (sweet taste of rice). So far, we only tried about less than 5 dishes out of their 100 dishes. Overall, i give this shop 8.5/10. 1 point minus for being too remote and 0.5 point minus for limited carpark. Will drop by the place again to try out other dishes. So next time when u are in Bedok, drop by this place to fill your stomach with good food. Address: 357 Bedok Rd Singapore 469545. Tel: 6445 9100

Fresh Sashimi straight from the distributor


Last tuesday night, my family was sitting together in the living room watching whatever was showing on Channel 5. Then it was showing Heartland Getaways 2 hosted by En Lai. My husband and I are crazy over salmon sashimi. Happened that En Lai was touring this Fassler Gourmet factory located in Woodlands. Fassler Gourmet also welcomes walk-in visitors to buy their products with no price limit. They sell freshly packed sashimi and other products. So this weekend, we might drop by Fassler Gourmet to buy salmon sashimi. So this is one outlet we can go for instead from non-halal japanese restaurant. Their homepage is http://www.fasslergourmet.com/. Address is: 46 Woodlands Ter Singapore 738459. Tel : 6257 5257

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Han River Barbeque Restaurant - Competitor of Seoul Garden...

Hello, it's me again. Last Saturday, we went to Eastpoint mall to buy a patchwork bedcover. I saw my friend had this beautiful bedcover when i visited her during last Hari Raya Puasa. So after buying the bedcover from Eastpoint mall level 2, we saw this banner advertising Han River Barbeque Restaurant at level 3. So we gave it a try and surprisingly, though the restaurant's layout is a bit run-down, the food is pretty good. The beef slices are nicely marinaded and my husband was like eating > 40 grilled prawns as he said the prawns are very fresh. Their spread is slightly more than Seoul garden's spread. I couldn't eat much because i had to feed my son. But my husband was like stuffing himself with so much food. Hmm...i forgot how much was per person for the buffet. It's about $37+ for 2, so roughly is $18.5+ per pax. I will rate this 7.5/10 because 1 minus point for the run-down condition of the restaurant, 1 minus point for no drinks included in the buffet (we bought a jar of $15 of lime juice instead) and 0.5 minus point for very cramp layout of the tables and chairs. No picture provided (forgot to take). Just imagine is like Seoul garden but is a bit run-down. Hope they will improve in this without increasing the price.

Eatzi Gourmet - Jack's Place brother...


Hi hi. It's me again. This time i am not sharing any recipe but to recommend u this halal outlet which serves food as good as Jack's Place (non-halal). Eatzi Gourmet's outlets are subsidiaries of Jack's Place Holdings Pte Ltd and have sucessfully achieved Halal Certification from MUIS in July 2006. They have 2 outlets, one in Yishun Safra and the other in Eastpoint Mall (level 2). They have their 'homemade' chicken bacon which tastes almost like the real bacon except this is 100% halal. I will ask the waiter to top my baked potato with lots of sour cream and chicken bacon. Calling all halal steak lovers, don't miss this Eatzi restaurant as they serve very good steaks. You can read more about Eatzi at http://www.eatzi.com.sg/. I will give this a score of 9/10. 1 point minus because their locations are rather remote. Hope they will open more outlets in town or places. I suggest they open at IMM (Jurong East) because i am staying near IMM hahaha.