Asparagus

Last night, I decided to try a different way of cooking asparagus.

Ingredients:

1. Asparagus

2. Red Bell Pepper

3. Enoki Mushroom 

4. Black Fungus 

According to the health information in my reference book, eating such combination protects our eyes as well as lower our body fats. Asparagus is consider a mild cooling food and is beneficial to our liver, prevent heart problems and cancer.

Preparation is fairly easy. Blanch the asparagus lightly first.  Drop the red bell pepper, enoki mushroom and black fungus into a heated wok with a bit of oil, and do a quick stir fry.  Add one teaspoon each of sesame oil, knorr chicken stock powder, rice wine and sprinkle a bit of salt, then add the blanched asparagus, make a quick stir fry before serving. 

How's that?  The colours of the dish makes me hungry. And the taste? Just perfect! 

I also fried some eggs with yellow onions to go with this dish.  I learnt that eating eggs with black fungus actually helps to strengthen our bones and teeth.  Asparagus with eggs also bring a rosy glow to our skin.  Those with joint pain can try eating asparagus with crab meat cos it is said to reduce the pain.  However, take care not to eat asparagus with bananas, as it will irriate our stomach and cause discomfort. 
I told hubby I'm happy to prepare tasty home-cooked meals for him.  He was all smiles. 

Portobello

Haven't had portobello for some time, so I decided to prepare some for dinner last night. 

The first time I got to know about this breed of mushroom was at the Margaritas restaurant some years back.  Its aroma and jucyness attracted me.  Best of all, it's available at the NTUC supermarket.  Had tried a couple of recipes from the internet; be it toasted with a slice of cheese on top, or with onions and bell peppers, hubby likes them all. 

Last night's attempt, however, was quite disappointing.  Instead of chopping the onions, I actually decided to grind it with my dry mill so as to avoid teary eyes.  As a result, the pungent smell of the onion was too overpowering and didn't taste as good. 

Wonder if anyone knows to chop onions without bringing tears to the eyes?  Someone told me I could fill my mouth with some water while doing it, but I had tried before and it doesn't really help very much. 

Thankfully hubby finished the meal without any complaint. And that's what I really appreciate about him too...

Baking Mood

If you ask me, I'd prefer cooking over baking (be it cakes or other form of pastries).  Why? Because I don't really like food that is too sweet, buttery or creamy.  But I do indulge in some sinful desserts occasionally.  Hehe.

As for hubby, he's a desset guy (well, almost).  Before we bought the oven, I made a few attempts at baking muffins with the microwave oven; it was a disaster! Fortunately, my elder sister encouraged me to attend baking classes, and so I signed up for one recently at BIY (short for Bake-It-Yourself). Haha, no muffin class available so I opted for something close - profiteroles (a 2-hour lesson). 

Just last Sunday I managed to try it out with the new oven.  Guess what? Tada!

Success!  My youngest niece loved it and ate two of them - a very powerful affirmation for the efforts I put in indeed, and that really made my day!

With renewed zest, I decided to give the muffins a try again, since there were some over-ripe bananas in the kitchen.  The recipe is taken from bakingmum.blogspot.com.  I reduced the sugar content as bananas have a much higher sugar level when over-ripe. 

The result?  See for yourself...

"Ah-ha...! Finally, muffins that rise huh...? Not bad." hubby said after one bite.

"The texture could be better," I quibbed, "The ingredients used were mixed by hand. If you want smoother, lighter muffins, get me a mixer, OK?"

"I knew there's a catch somewhere..." hubby just shook his head in resignation.

Yay...      

Turkish Figs

Maybe you've seen this fruit before.  I came across it during last Sunday's wet market trip.  It's a fig fruit from Turkey as what the fruit seller told me.  I found it rather special as I've never seen such fruit before.  What I normally see is the small light brownish yellow type of fig fruits which people usually use to make dessert or soup.  So I decided to buy it home to try even though it costs me $6 for 4 figs! 

According to the fruit seller, it is only edible when the skin turns dark purple. 

How do you eat it?  By peeling the outer layer skin from the tip of the fruit.

Here you have it, the inner view of the fruit.  It was soft and very easy to eat, sweetness is mild but just enough, unlike the dried figs which tend to be much sweeter.  It's worth trying as it is not a fruit that we get to see that often here.  

Beauty Food : SP2

In one of my previous post, I mentioned this book about food combination for health which I refer to frequently. It features food ranging from vegetables, meat, seafood, fruits, etc. Besides mentioning the benefits of each type of food, it also states the effects of combining food that will or will not benefit our health, which is what I like about this book. After all, anyhow cook doesn't mean haphazard cooking, you know.

This book is in Mandarin, the title translated is "Achieving good health by eating the right food".  In fact, NTUC is selling the 2nd edition of this book currently. I'll try to share some of the knowledge I learned from this book here.  Since it's a Chinese book, I'll have to put my translation skills or rather, my hubby's, to the test.

For a start, I tried stir frying pumpkin and steamed prawns.  I love the sunny colour of these dishes which whet my appetite.

The book suggests that eating pumpkin and prawns together can help to beautify our skin and reduce fatigue. The vitamin C in pumpkin combines with the protein of prawns to improve formation of collagen, and it helps prevent freckles as well as reduce fatigue.

So go ahead - try SP2 (short for Sunny Prawn and Pumpkin), it's a cheaper and tastier alternative to SK2. Satisfaction guaranteed!