Jade: Bitemyyolks

4 eggs, 4 twin yolks. Toto anyone? and does anyone know if chickens can bear twins too?

Jade: Bitemypesto

I was an only child for 4 years. And the way my mum would try to keep me entertained while she went about attending to her grown-up business was by leaving the telly on CNN or BBC....or any news programme for that matter. The idea was for my toddler self to believe the newscasters were actually talking to me..And so for an hour or so on most days, there I would sit, having rivetting conversations with my anchor friends. I no longer think Larry King is pointing at me because he caught me picking my nose..Some days though, when I am alone in my room and finding it hard to concentrate in the deafening silence, I put on a show on i-player and let the soothing voices of Nigel Slater and Nigella Lawson talk me through chapter after chapter of rheumatology.

Goats cheese and pesto parcel [I was in the middle of osteoarthritis when I caught bits of this recipe..and I knew..I just had to try it]

Pesto

50 g roughly chopped fresh basil

2 cloves crushed garlic

50 g roughly chopped toasted pine nuts

65g hard cheese..I used pecorino

big glug of olive oil

salt to taste

Pulse everything in a blender until it forms a vibrant green paste, faintly scented with garlic

Parcel

1 round goats cheese

1 big dollop pesto

1 square all butter puff pastry [try to avoid ready rolled ones, they don't taste as good]

1 beaten egg

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees

2. Roll out puff pastry into a nice big square

3. Place goats cheese in the middle, top with a generous dollop of fresh pesto

4. Brush the edges with beaten egg, bring all corners to the middle and pinch the seams firmly, making sure you get a tight seal

5. Give it a quick eggwash and bake for about 20 minutes

6. Serve hot on a bed of salad leaves and chopped tomatoes gently drizzled with olive oil and tossed in balsamic vinegar..

In the words of Nigel Slater.."There are few things that are quite as sexy to eat as hot, molten goats cheese..and warm, crumbly pastry.."

What to do with the leftover pesto? Beat in some cream cheese, toss with pasta, and top with freshly cracked black pepper...or better yet, seal it all in a fat, fluffy omelette with more goats cheese and thickly sliced tomatoes. They say gluttony is a sin..but for this, I would gladly be deemed a sinner ;)

Jade: Bitemybrownies

Jade's top pet peeve~ nuts in my brownies. I know all these Michelin-starred geniuses go on about contrasting textures but nothing offends me more than biting into a nut while I'm enjoying a thick, fudgy chunk of brownie. Doesn't help that I don't actually like chocolate to begin with. I've been searching high and low for a chocolate dessert that is rich enough to satisfy the occasional craving, yet light enough to not make me put down my fork after 2 forced bites. The tuckshop back in boarding school used to sell cakes from Secret Recipe and oh how everyone raved about the chocolate banana cake. I loved the idea of fruit and chocolate...a lot less crazy about the blah execution....even less amused by the fact that I was actually expected to pay for substandard cake. So I head, once again, into my kitchen, trying to make my world better, one well-made cake at a time ;)

Bananachoc brownies~~[Adapted from Alton Brown's brownies, which are sublime on their own...but I like to be different:P]

4 eggs

1/2cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

8 oz melted salted butter

1 1/4 cup cocoa

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1/2 cup flour

pinch of salt

2 ripe bananas, 3 if they're smaller

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp caramel

pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees

2. Slice bananas, dump them into a pan with the butter, caramel and salt and heat through so the butter and caramel melt, giving you this lovely toffee-ish sauce

3. Whisk eggs, add sugar and give another quick whisk

4. Add dry ingredients and mix till well combined

5. Add melted butter slowly, mixing as you go along

6. Butter a square pan, pour in half the brownie mix, spread the banana filling over it, and cover with the rest of the brownie batter

7. Bake for about 30 minutes. Without the bananas, 25 minutes is plenty..but with the extra weight of the bananas..a few extra minutes just helps it hold its shape better. I learnt the hard way when my brownie collapsed :(

8. Let cool completely, cut into generous squares and enjoy.

I have 10 squares left and I don't like chocolate. Any takers?

Jade: Bitemynoodles

* Oh yay! 100th post!!

I was a fussy fussy eater as a child. I would pick and prod and push everything around on the plate until someone mercifully took it away. Explains why I never really reached my full growth potential:( When we lived in Miri though, there was one particular dish I would always finish, which is saying a lot because back then, food in Miri was frankly, crap. It was tomato noodles, not unlike the tomato kuay tiaw we get in Sibu. The chef was this old man with like 20 daughters [or at least that's what it seemed like at the time] and one of them was always pregnant. Her noodles tasted the best after the dad's. Perhaps it was the pregnancy hormones...alas she never stayed un-pregnant long enough for me to test that hypothesis. I have been searching for that taste ever since..but whenever I ask for it in Sibu, all I get are blank stares....which frustrates me to no end. It really isn't that complicated: use egg noodles instead of rice noodles.the end. Sigh, goes to show..if you want something done properly, do it yourself.

Tomato noodles [Thanks to the pictures on suituapui ;) Not quite 'old man in Miri' yet..maybe I need to get pregnant to grasp the true essence of the dish..but god, did it hit the spot.]

150g egg noodles

3 cloves garlic, minced

Bacon, diced [ use pork or chicken or fish, I used bacon because I wanted to render some of the fat]

Prawns

Pak Choy roughly chopped [ mustard greens would be even more authentic]

Kicap Manis

Splosh of dark soy for colour

About half a cup chicken stock or water [ depending how much gravy you want, if you want a thicker gravy, get yourself some cornstarch slurry]

Ketchup

sugar and fish sauce to taste

1. Heat up some oil and render some bacon fat. You don't have to, I just couldn't bear to throw the fat away.

2. Throw in half the chopped garlic, fry till fragrant and add the noodles

3. Add kicap manis and dark soy, stir till noodles are evenly coated and leave it. This way they get a little charred at the bottom. It's near impossible to replicate that whole 'wok hei' thing you get in the shops, especially on an electric hob, so this is probably the next best thing

4. Dish up the noodles and set aside

5. In the same pan, fry the garlic and bacon till fragrant, add stock, and stir in abt 1-2 tbsp of ketchup, tasting as u go along. The idea is to have a really subtle tomatoey sweetness..the last thing anyone wants is to taste nothing but ketchup

6. Add the seafood and veg, and season to taste, aiming to get a balance of sweet and savoury and the tiniest whisper of a tang.

7. Pour gravy over noodles, top with some pickled chilli and SLURP, as loud as you can ;)

Sush: Peanut Butter Cookies

Like Jade here, I have this constant need to have peanut butter. I swear, I think I'm addicted!

Anyway, one of the food blogs I frequent is Smitten Kitchen. :) I love her stuff and her pictures are divine!
From my random browsing last night after revision, I came across her Peanut Butter Cookies recipe and I just had to give this a shot! A replica of the peanut butter cookies found in the famous Magnolia Bakery in NYC, they looked too good not to try!

It looked less guilty than the Peanut Butter Brownies anyway... lol.

They came out amazing. :) Soft and warm and chewy. Ahhhh...and so infused with peanut butter!! <3

You can get the recipe from the direct link I've provided! Next attempt this weekend will be Blueberry Crumb Squares. ;)

xx
Sush

Jade: Bitemyburger

Everyone I know loves a fat, juicy burger with a side of hot, salty fries. But like the elusive cupcake, a good burger is so difficult to come by. Granted the definition of good is hugely subjective, case in point Mc.D's prosperity burger. I was so full of hope having read countless reviews about this seasonal treat..only to have my bubble go 'pffffttttttttt' when I finally took a tentative bite: soggy buns check, patty that tasted like cardboard check, watery peppery brown liquid check. I mourned that night..for the unnecessary wasting of precious calories.

Rice burger with sweet potato wedges~ Because it's healthier and because I would rather stop talking for a week than look at another potato.

Half a cup cooked sushi rice, formed into patties and panfried till crispy

1 piece butterflied chicken thigh, grilled [ I marinated mine in worchestershire sauce, honey, smashed lemon grass and garlic]

Fresh lettuce, tossed in the pan juices from the chicken

some tomato slices

Kewpie mayo

Sweet potato, boiled to soften, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted for 30 minutes

Assemble burger, and enjoy a non-soggy bun, perfectly juicy meat and crunchy veg that hasn't been lying at the back of someone's fridge for a month.

Jade: Bitemyokonomiyaki

The first time I had okonomiyaki must've been last year..when Mars and I [and by that I mean I wanted to, she really didn't have a choice in the matter] went on a food crawl around Covent Garden. Non-stop eating; 12 restaurants in 2 days. One of the best birthdays I've ever had, but I digress. I've never given much thought to this japanese pancake...the idea was novel, it looked pretty on a plate, but somehow it just never seemed intriguing enough. That is, until I took my first bite....light, almost creamy pancake packed full of crunchy vegetables and chunks of the freshest seafood, drizzled with tangy okonomiyaki sauce and silky Kewpie Mayo.....It was so much more than just a pancake..it was comfort food and a fuzzy hug all rolled into one. All those years I spent giving a disdainful sniff whenever someone suggested having it..what was I thinking? Ah well...better late than never, I say ;)

Okonomiyaki

1/4 cup all purpose flour [ I used self raising because I was lazy to measure out baking powder]

1/4 tsp baking powder

salt to taste

1/4 cup water or dashi stock [ I crumbled in some vegetable stock granules instead]

1 egg

1 spring onion, chopped

about 4 cabbage leaves, stems removed and roughly chopped

mixed seafood [ use bacon, mushrooms, cheese, anything you fancy]

Sauce

2-3 tbsp ketchup

1tbsp worchestershire sauce

soy sauce to taste

squirt of honey to balance out the tang

1. Get a non-stick frying pan nice and hot

2. Whisk the flour, salt and water till you get a fairly thick batter

3. Add cabbage, spring onion and seafood, crack in your egg

4. Give it a good stir, mainly to break up the egg, taking care not to overmix

5. Drizzle some oil into the hot pan, pour in your okonomiyaki batter and cook for about 5 minutes. I used my rice cooker lid to cover the pancake because that's what the lady at the shop did. I'm sure it has something to do with half steaming the pancake so it cooks thoroughly.

6. Get yourself 2 spatulas and flip the pancake, let it cook for another 5-10 minutes

7. Stick a skewer through the middle to check if it's cooked all the way through, brush on a generous amount of okonomiyaki sauce and drizzle on some Kewpie Mayo. You could use normal mayo, but it won't be the same.

8. Share with someone you like:)