Strawberry Jam

 

Just a day before my Pharmacology exam, with all my nerves hyperactivating, stress level on a high and feeling like I want to postpone my exam again...I stumbled upon this life-saving recipe! 

Her blog is filled with such beautifully taken pictures and this recipe seems so easy and fail-proof. So then I decided that I HAVE to go for my exam so that I can start experimenting on this recipe and other recipes that I have found on her site! :-D

 

So here I am.....Pharm exam done and ready to fulfill my mission! :-D

Went straight to the open market outside Obchodni Dum Tesco to buy a box of strawberries that I saw with Sie Ong just the week before. The signs were saying that it's 50Kc per kg. The strawberries from afar already looked somewhat squashed. But since I am gonna be squashing them anyway, no harm right? :-P

 

To be honest, what attracted me to the strawberries from this stall is not the price tag but hehe...the box they come in. Alas...I was deceived. When I went back there again, I discovered that you don't get the box it comes in AND I was also stupid enough to think that whole box is 1 kg itself...so yeah, that big whole box only cost me 50Kc. Hah! =.= After having Yumi helped me pick out the strawberries, I handed the box to the vendor and then he proceeded to weigh it and then I realised.....=.= 

Anyway, on with the recipe. Do check out Indochinekitchen's post here. I followed it to the dot. Except that I didn't know that sugar is being used a sort of preservatives...so in my mind, I was thinking to reduce the amount cos 200grams seems rather diabetic to me. XD Plus the strawberries were rather sweet already.

I am not sure how long my jam could have lasted as my guinea pigs all seemed to have finished it before the 2 weeks storage time mentioned by Indochinekitchen! :-D

I received very good feedback from my friends whom I gave my jam to. So this is definitely a keeper...eventhough I am not much of a jam person. :-P

 

 Next up I am gonna try to infuse some new taste to my jam. Was playing around this idea...strawberry with cinnamon, strawberry with mint [I have a pot of mint waiting to be used :-D] or strawberry with fruit tea leaves? 

 

Parmice = Pseudopeneus prayensis = West African Goatfish

Have seen this in TESCO for a long time already but only bought it recently.

I have this habit of wikipedia-ing just about everything and I especially love to search up on these vague scientific names. And especially when I don't understand what sort of frozen fish are they selling in TESCO and they look oh-so-familiar.

When I bought this, it reminded me of the fish that Indian restaurants in Malaysia sell. All marinated in curry powder, chilli powder and all the various spices and then deep-fried to perfection! Yum! :-D So I thought maybe I could do the same with this..:-P

But I still needed to know if that was the right way of cooking for this fish and if there's any other ways to enjoy it. For this to happen, I need to know what the heck does 'parmice' means in English. Or 'Pseudopeneus prayensis'. Unfortunately this fish doesn't seem that popular in the cooking world....most search hits were about scientific cateloguing of this species....which almost guilt me.

Luckily, someone has gone thru what I had and posted it up! Ta-da! There's even a website with a video on how to cook this fish.  :-)

".....discovered they have white meat with delicate taste, as they were in a same family as red mullets. They are often eaten in curry or deep fried....."

Yay! Another item to be cooked Malaysian-style that you can find in the Czech TESCO near you!

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I haven't been really getting the mood to experiment much recipes and then I got braces...which further dampen my spirit on what I can enjoy eating. =___= But I have kind of adjusted to it now and I figured that I will try all these recipes and eat all I love a week before I need to see my orthodontist for adjustment of the wires. :-D

Happy Chinese New Year! ^_^ [Peanuts Cookies & Chinese-styled Roast Chicken]

 Gong Hei, Gong Hei!!! Gong Hei Fatt Choy!!!

May the Year of Rabbit brings prosperity and good health to everyone!

We are going to have a little reunion dinner among good friends tonight and to lessen my work load today; I started making some preparations since yesterday. ;-) It's exam period for us right now [still left with Pharmacology exam!!!], so this is just gonna be a simple dinner affair.

In my plans:

1. Yee Sang
2. Butter Prawns
3. Chinese-styled Roast Chicken
4. Tang Yuan with Black Sesame Seed Paste
5. Cornflakes Cookies
6. Peanut Cookies
7. Stir-fry Vegetables with Mushrooms
8. Chicken Rice

For the first time, I actually bought fresh salmon to be used for the Yee Sang. Previously, I have only used smoked salmon cos I was too chicken about fresh salmon. I mean, I absolutely love eating salmon sashimi...but that's at a proper restaurant. Managing it myself, I wasn't too confident. But I did gathered up my courage to try it this year! ;-)

To check if the salmon's alright, I had a few pieces to myself. XD. I have a really sensitive GIT. :-P Anyway, although the salmon's not sashimi grade, it's still pretty alright to be used for Yee Sang.

My Yee Sang will always only include ingredients that I actually eat :-P So I kinda cut out a lot of items. But! this year I am gonna include daikon and carrots as well!

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Peanut Cookies

Yesterday, I managed to bake a batch of peanut cookies. My FIRST time ever baking something more complicated than cornflakes cookies. I don't know why I even wanted to bake peanut cookies...when I actually don't really like peanuts. or cookies. :-P But you know, it's Chinese New Year! Gotta have some home-made cookies....no matter how bad they look.

Anyway, they look pretty bad cos my dough was a bit 'wet' and I forgot the tips that I could add flour [I had that thought in my head...but I still didn't do it. Weird] if my dough was too 'wet....so I couldn't shape them properly. Plus, I don't have a proper brush to brush on the egg wash ---> used my clean fingers instead. Taste was surprisingly alright. I need my friends to judge for me cos I don't exactly like eating these kinda stuffs so I am biased. Anyway, this batch is actually alright....cos I didn't burn them. XD. The burned ones have a slight smoky taste to them...haha. Highly recommended. not.

Got my recipe from here. See how pretty hers are? I might endeavour to make these again......if I am so inclined to feel stressed and feel like crushing peanuts using a hammer. XD. Yeah, I don't have a grinder.

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Chinese-Styled Roast Chicken

I got convinced by Sie Ong to get a whole chicken instead of small parts. LOL. It was....an interesting experience as I have never bought a whole chicken which still reminds me of a chicken. Yeah I eat meat but I get queasy at the thought of the animal itself...being slaughtered and all --> hypocrite ME. >.< Holding up the chicken felt like holding Koko up; especially by its wings. Koko is my housemate's dog, btw. Anyway, I thanked the chicken for its sacrifice and promised that I will honor its existence by making it taste real good. :-)

I read up on how to handle the chicken including instructions on how to butterfly it here. The recipe.....I kinda pull every part of its recipe from random food blogs and based on what I feel right. lol.

I marinated the chicken overnight in a zip-loc bag.

The marination:
1. 1.5 tbsp Light soy sauce
2. 1 tbsp Toasted sesame seeds
3. 1 tbsp 5-spice powder
4. 1/2 tbsp Lemon juice
5. 1 teaspoon of  Sugar
6. 1 teaspoon of Salt
7. Ginger juice
8. 3 cloves of Garlic
[This is roughly the amount I used...]

Mix all this into a paste in a bowl . Then give your chicken a good massage it deserved for being your meal. :-) Remember to rub some under its skin.

I don't know how this will taste yet. But the marination smells so goooood. XD.