Pan Seared Dory with Capers Mustard Sauce

Last weekend while my hubby and son watched the match between Liverpool and Arsenal, I was busy preparing for dinner and once in a while, divert my attention to the TV screen when they started screaming. This time round, I decided to try and make dory fish and the easiest and fastest is through pan fry. This is how I did it...

Ingredients:
3 pieces of frozen dory fillet, thawed completely
Flour to coat the fillet
A few sprig of dill
Garlic powder
Cajun
Salt and pepper

Sauce
Cream, butter, mustard, capers, lime juice

Method:
Make sure the fillet is dry, dap it using kitchen towel. Then season both side with salt, pepper, garlic powder and cajun. Next, coat the fish with flour. The fish is now ready to be cooked.

Heat your skillet with butter or oil (butter is tastier but make sure you use unsalted one since you already season the fish, otherwise it can be too salty). When the butter is melted, put in the dill before you put in the fish. After a few minutes when the fish starts to brown, turn it the other side until it is cooked. Transfer to plate.

For the sauce, using the same skillet, melt butter into pan scrapping brown bits from the bottom of the pan into medium heat. Add cream, mustard, capers, lime juice and stir for a few minutes and pour sauce over the fish and serve with sauteed or boiled veges.

Since hubby asked for some carbo, I cooked seafood aglio olio as the side.

The Super Easy Pizza ala Domino

All my kids love pizza including their Dad. Where else can we go when we crave for pizza other than Pizza Hut, Domino or Pizza San Francisco. After a while, you just get tired of ordering the same old pizza, Super Supreme and Beef Pepperoni. So, I decided that I should try and make my own pizza. Again, when you search for pizza dough recipe, you will get thousands on the net. So, which one should I choose? The title Super Easy Pizza Dough caught my attention. well, we always look for something that is easy, right. The ingredients uses cup measurement which is my main criteria since I don't like to use the weighing scale. I did not follow the method of mixing the yeast with the other dry ingredients. I adopted the method taught by Micheal Smith when I watched him on Chef at Home. I like to watch him cook, it makes cooking so simpler and easy.

Super Easy Pizza Dough
by http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Super-Easy-Pizza-Dough-L723.html

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour
1 sachet of dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the yeast mixture and oil. Use a round-bladed knife in a cutting motion to mix until the mixture is combined. Use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl.

Brush a bowl lightly with oil. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in the prepared bowl and turn to coat in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draught-free place to rise for 30 minutes or until dough doubles in size.

When your topping are ready, take out the dough and place on a floured surface and punch to remove air bubbles. Knead it gently and then roll it out to desired size.

For me, I will put it in oven for 10 minutes before I add the toppings. I read somewhere that it is better to brush the pizza with oil before you add on the sauce to prevent the sauce from absorbing into the crust and making it soggy. This time, I just use the ready made pizza sauce. Perhaps in future, I will try and make the sauce from skratch. As usually, the toppings that I used were mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes and cheese.

It turned out quite well and when my niece came by later and finished off the pizza, she thought that we bought the pizza from Domino. Not bad at all :-)

My first ever Red Velvet

Red Velvet is the "in thing" right now for bakers lover. What is so special about this RV? I have not been baking cakes for quite a while now but I am just curious to find out how it tastes. After goggling for the recipe, I found one that I think is doable with simple ingredients. It is from Chuck Hughes, the chef from "Chuck's Day Off" in AFC channel. From the ingredients, I noticed that the unique ingredient is the vinegar and I later found out that RV has a distinct taste which came about from the reaction of vinegar and the baking soda with a touch of coco powder. Of course the strong red colour of the cake makes it more bright and striking. So here's the recipe..

RED VELVET Cupcake by Chuck Hughes Chuck's Day Off
Cake:
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoon Red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa (I used 2)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Icing:
2 cups mascarpone
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup 35% cream (heavy whipping cream)(I used low-fat yogurt instead)
Zest of 1 lemon

Preheat your oven to 350.

Mix your dry ingredients and your wet ingredients in separate bowls. Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients a little bit at a time.

Line a muffin tin with liners and grease the inside of them. Fill up your liners a little more than halfway and bake for 25 minutes, rotating them at 12 or 13 minutes. When you take them out, stick a toothpick in them. If it comes out clean your cupcakes are done. If not, keep baking them.

For the icing, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until a smooth, creamy texture. It doesn't take long to do by hand and you work off a few calories doing it. Wait for them to cool before you ice them.

Mine did not turn out that well. The top cracked a bit probably due to the hot oven temperature. But it still taste good and moist with the mascarpone toppings. At least I know what I should do for my next batch of RV.

The "Masterchef" Kitchen in the making

When we got the key to our new condo 3R, we were contemplating whether to rent it out or keep it as our weekend gateaway. Of course the thought of having my own kitchen was so overwhelming that I managed to persuade my other half not to rent it out. So, decision made and I started to dig my collection of decor magazines to look for kitchen designs. I also bought the latest decor mag to see what's the latest trend.

Having done some research, we visited some of the other units in our condo in serach for a contractor. We were impressed with the workmanship of one chinese contractor who did the kitchen for one of our neighbours and asked him to do ours. We wanted to have a contemporary kitchen style, something modern with simple and clean architectural lines. The main criteria is to have an island like the masterchef kitchen seen on tv. So, we agreed to have a glass and stainless steel finishing and settled with a colour combination of grey, silver and black.

Next was to decide on the material for the top and the cabinet. Nowadays, you are spoilt with choices for as long as you have the money to spare. We decided on granite worktop since our main criteria has to be heavy duty. Although the cost is a bit expensive, it is the toughest, most durable option, water resistance, heatproof, easy to clean and impervious to scratches.

The construction took approximately two months to complete since he was doing it alone with the help of an indonesian lady. It was quite a challenge to decide on the design since the space was quite small and we have to think how best to fit in the hob, oven, fridge and the sink so it would be easier to move around while cooking.

When designing a kitchen, you have to take into account the traffic flow and the functionality and storage. Since space is our main constraint, we decided not to have a dinning table, suffice to have the island as the workstation as well as dining area. The outcome is awesome and we were satisfied with our new Masterchef Kitchen.

How did it all started?

I have not been cooking for many many years, since the birth of my second son way back in 1997. It happened when I started to have a Thai maid from Narathiwat, a place in the southern part of Thailand who naturally a great cook. Since then, my life took a sharp turn. I slowly divert myself away from the area where I use to love, the kitchen. What's the point I thought? I have a maid who is so good in cooking, why worry.

At that time, life was hectic with two kids, and the baby boy needed all the mum's attention and work became more and more challenging. The moment you returned home from work, you are occupied with the kids and you are already too tired to cook. Slowly, you started to loose your cooking skill and as the kids grew up, you tend to spend more time eating out. All those fast foods getting closer and closer to your home making it easier to grab them and the kids just love it...like McDonald, I'm Loving It.

Now, after more than 15 years and the kids have started to leave the house and stayed in boarding schools, I find myself having more time at home and more time to watch tv. I started to enjoy the AFC channel on Astro and since then have been thinking of having my own masterchef kitchen at home. We can't do much with the existing kitchen at home and it has become the maid's territory. You don't even know where your cooking utensils are stored and having challenging moments trying to look for ingredients to cook. It was only recently that we decide to buy a condo and I thought, it would be a great idea to have my very own masterchef kitchen there. That was how it all started...