Hello Hello :)

I feel embarrassed for being away for so long.

My apologies.

Victoria Sandwich by Sibu Food Diva

I have a lot of backlogged food stuffs to be blogged about, but I am in the midst of moving to a new place, and having that damn disease does not help much. :(

I have eaten a lot of nice stuffs, both in Sibu and KL.

Cheerio, shall blog soon. 

Sibu Food Diva's Couscous

My boyfriend used to live in Tunisia during his childhood days.

Hence the craving for couscous.

Couscous recipe

The packet of couscous which he bought in B.I.G. has been sitting in the kitchen cabinet for a while before I call for my defeat and finally cooked the couscous.

I went through numerous sites to learn how to cook couscous via Google mentor.

Finally.

This is it.

Couscous was rather easy, just pour hot chicken broth (i use chicken bouillon) or hot water to couscous and immediately cover with clingfilm for about 5 minutes or more, then fluffed up with a fork. 

Beef meatballs were bought from Village Grocer's at 1Mont Kiara, pumpkin and capsicum were anointed with generous amount of olive oil before going into the oven at 150 C for about 1 hour.

Meatballs were pan fried, set aside, and toast the slivers of almond.

Drain and rinse a can of garbanzo beans / chickpeas.

Assemble everything together, and the slivers of the almonds, the last.

Garnish chopped parsley on top, and season with salt, pepper and smoked paprika.

The verdict?

My boyfriend is a happy boy. :)

Nigella's Mustard Pork Chops

It is very comforting and rewarding, to have dinner at home sometimes.

Being a very big fan of Nigella Lawson myself, having almost all of her cookbooks, I decided to give this recipe a try.

You may also find the recipe here.

Nigella's Mustard Pork Chops

Being a typical non-conformist, I decided to do without the gnocchi, and replaced with roast potato wedges and blanched broccoli.

For the pork chops, I used Strongbow cider and only thickened cream. No double cream.

It worked! :)

The roast potato wedges were simply baby potatoes washed and scrubbed then quartered, then boiled in water for 3 minutes, rinsed with cold water and drained. Then they were anointed generously with olive oil and shoved in the oven at 150 degree Celcius for a good 1 hour and turned it up to 200 degree Celcius for 10 minutes.

This dish, goes very well, with a bottle of Moet and Chandon. :)

Cheers and have a good weekend.

Pizza Margherita and Vina Maipo 2010 Chardonnay

There are times when life seems rather hopeless.

If hopeless is the right adjective to describe, life. 

:)

Let me search the back of my mind to give you the other pleasant-sounding words to describe, hopeless.

On the other hand, while I'm thinking of that suitable word to describe my melancholic sadness at the moment, let me tell you I have found a therapeutic way of relieving stress.

Baking.

Not just any sort of baking, that is. 

Baking a bread.

In my case, I bake a pizza.

Pizza Margherita

Constant kneading and punching, gives you that sort of blissful feeling. 

And in the case of baking a bread / pizza, the more kneading and punching, the better the texture of the bread / pizza.

I stumbled upon this recipe, at BBC Good Food; Pizza Margherita Recipe

The recipe is fantastic, except that, in Malaysia, our ultra-humid weather, the dough seemed a bit stickier than it should be, so I added 8 tablespoons of plain flour and additional one tablespoonful of olive oil.

To get you in the mood for this, you should listen to Godfather's theme song. 

I think. Mario Puzo was an excellent writer. If you have yet to read or watch the Godfather series, it is time for you to do so. 

Not to mention it is also, rather therapeutic to feast my eyes on Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Andy Garcia.

:)

My pizza margherita. Parmesan, Mozzarella, Passata and olive oil are of Italian origin.

The only problem is that the baker is a Chinese girl. :P

Let me show you another photo.

Pizza Margherita recipe courtesy of BBC Good Food

The pizza margherita tasted absolutely amazing.

Not that I am narcissistic per say, I am just praising the recipe.

And.

C'est vraiment magnifique if. Paired with Chardonnay. From Chile.

Vina Maipo 2010 Chardonnay from Casablanca Valley.

I am not a wine drinker.

Especially white wine. But now I am a convert.

I only drink this. Vina Maipo Chardonnay 2010 from Casablanca Valley.

It is very hard to come across one. A good Samaritan somehow managed to stumble upon this and got me not 1 but 2!
:)

 It is (I am ashamed to say, my first time trying a Chardonnay, I drank Sauvignon Blanc one too many times) fragrant with fruity hint.

Best paired with dishes not containing spices.

My pizza margherita fits pretty much well in that category.

Vina Maipo Chardonnay 2010 Casablanca Valley

I say, I am on top of the world. :)

Allow me to sip this while forget about single malt. Period.

Have a good weekend!

Of Life, Limoncello and Roasted Kumara Salad

I passed the ordeal.

Leg un-jammed.

I have to pat myself on the back for surviving this.

However, I am not fit yet to walk steadily.

Hence, limping around in the kitchen and cooked for myself.

So not me, but yeah, when life gives me lemon, I make Limoncello out of it.

At least Limoncello is far better than lemonade and will knock you off your feet if you drink a tad too much. :)

This is what I made.

Roasted sweet potatoes salad tossed with cherry tomatoes and garnished with arugula leaves, drizzled with generous amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad by Sibu Food Diva

 

Life goes on.

I have lost a total of 7.5 kg in a span of mere 3 weeks. :(

Instant Noodles Goes Luxurious

I got a bunch of vege from a good Samaritan :)

So what is Sibu Food Diva capable of doing-

Step by step to luxurious instant noodles:

Boil water (roughly 1.5 cm level of water on a 15cm diameter saucepan), and empty the sachet of seasoning onto the saucepan.

Gently put the noodles in, and let it soak in the shallow level of water, and pry open the two layer of noodles so that every strand of the noodles is soaked in the broth.

Bring the broth to rapid boil and quickly dish out the noodles, but not the broth. The time that the noodles goes into the pot and out must not take any longer than 1 minute.

Next, put in vegetables, thinly sliced meat and lastly, crack an egg. Once the meat is cooked, bring to rapid boil again (this is to ensure the egg is not too raw, you don't want to get Salmonella poisoning, alright)

And, dish out onto the noodles.

Oops, before that. If you are an alcoholic just like me, don't forget the Chinese red wine. Generous amount, please.

By now, your noodles is 100% cooked. The moment you ladle the noodles out from the pot, the noodles are still cooking in the process, due to the heat.

Hope you enjoy this step-by-step guide of an engineered way to cook your instant noodles :)

By Sibu Food Diva, who is also an engineer. :)

Pardon her, she studies too much of Fluid Dynamics of late, and getting a bit cuckoo :P

My Signature Stir-fry Vermicelli

During the days when cholesterol wasn't that bad on my side, I love to spend my weekends going around doing marketing and cooked up something to appease my always hungry soul.

And this is it.

And if you think i'm into Macrobiotics or SouthBeach Diet, you got it wrong.

I just love having lots of meat and vegetable in my plate of anything that I cooked.

Hakka Yong Tau Fu

A lot of people came to ask me, if you're a Hakka, why do you speak Hokkien at home?

Thinking that I'm a wayward Hakka, I definitely prove you wrong.

I present to you, stuffed beancurd and lady's fingers, the Hakka style.

Though I don't speak Hakka as fluently as Hokkien, who says I can't prepare Hakka dish?!

This post is a tribute to my late Grandma, as today is All Souls' Day.

I've learned a lot from you in terms of culinary, sewing, and lots more.

And thank you for letting me to inherit your priceless recipe book, making me the envy of other Chungs.

Tak De Pedas Punya Kari Daging

In my so many years of cooking, I find it the most challenging, to whip up curry.


Not just any sort of curry, but a mildly hot and spicy one.

My curry dishes are usually super hot ones, with generous addition of dried and fresh chillies, shallots and garlic.


So this is it. I fare quite alright, judging that my friend could still take the curry gravy.

Beef curry served with roti prata.

*Chuckles* I don't know if my friend sensed the funky taste of the roti prata. Coz I use olive oil to fry the roti prata.

;P

Braised Pork

When Italian Meets Foochow

Living alone has its downside; is that it's such a hassle to cook rice. And single diner here presents to you, fusilli goes east to meet its Foochow counterpart.

Tadaa...

Beef stir-fried with greens, simmered in Foochow red wine. And cheers to the two gentlemen who were also in Choice Daily yesterday morning, thinking that I'm an underage and holding a bottle of red wine under my arm.

Even though I am a pure Hakka Mey, I grow up with the Foochows. Hence my Chinese cooking is also very towards Foochow style.

Fusili in Pomodoro Sauce

I can't seem to find a decent outlet in Kuching which serves fantastic Italian. Suggest to me one, if you happen to know.

In the meantime, I have to whip out on my own.

This is my take on Fusili cooked in Pomodoro sauce.

And if you wonder how I managed to coat every strand of the pasta with the sauce, feel free to leave a comment. I'll teach you. I do it the Italian way.

Auntie Lily's Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

There are some misconceptions about being a woman civil engineer.

It doesn't mean that we have to be totally macho and rough, and also unfeminine to boot. And I am here to defy all these.

Sibu Food Diva is a Civil Engineer and She Loves to Cook, Bake and Eat and Shop!

Here's my take on auntie Lily's Cinnamon Rolls Recipe.

Click here to view the recipe. Now, there's one good reason why you should try this out. It is very very similar to that of Cinnabon's!

But this is my take on the recipe:

1. 125g of butter instead of 113g
2. I use dough hooks to beat up the dough till elastic.
3. Divide the long roll into 24 pieces (Divide the main dough into two, roll out, and place the filling, roll up, and cut each half into a dozen pieces, and you get 24 all together for a single recipe)
4. Rest the rolls for 3 and 1/2 hours prior to baking in oven.
   

The end result: very soft, very fragrant, good in the tummy. Goes very well with a cuppa. Enjoy!

Somehow somewhere my baby sister saw this cinnamon roll in an unusual way, who once heard from me that cinnamon is able to ward off ants. While munching away the cinnamon rolls, one by one, she asked, "Che, save 1 piece aside and place it in our bathroom. There are so many ants in there!" :O Aiyo...Joan Che-Che was really lost for words at that moment.