Creamy Turkey with Nuts and Couscous

I am not particularly keen on turkey because I find it dry, and I hate dry food, I like it juicy or creamy. Then again, there are some people who really are gifted that no matter how much I don’t like turkey, they can make me eat the said poultry, not because of threat and violence, but because they can make turkey a lovely and savoury dish. So here is my attempt to do this kind of dish. Maybe they created this kind of dish before, but in my world, this is the first time I’ve seen it, so I am taking all the credit for making up this dish, then again I might be totally wrong, so for the person who invented this dish, I am sorry. I used couscous because I really want rice that time but there were no rice left, good thing there is couscous! Couscous is traditionally eaten by the people of North Africa (it’s their staple food), but that don’t get me wrong, anyone can eat couscous, not just the North Africans. Couscous can be served as a hot or cold meal, appetizer, main or maybe dessert (hmmm, I’ll try to use couscous as a dessert one of these days). Though a person who suffers from wheat allergy must be aware that couscous is a wheat product. Couscous is a healthy alternative to rice. Though partnering couscous with a heavy cream is not exactly healthy, so you might want to cool down on the heavy cream and use alternative creams or use skimmed milk. The dish I cooked is a fusion of North African, European and Asian dishes, go figure out which is which.

Ingredients:

1 Kilo of Turkey Breast

Mushroom

Onion

Garlic

Olive Oil

1 Can of Heavy Cream

Red Bell Pepper

Cashew Nuts

Pine Nuts

4 Tbsp of Soy Sauce

4 Tbsp of Teriyaki Sauce

Salt and Pepper

1 Cup of Chicken/Turkey Stock

Couscous

Water

Direction:

To prepare the couscous, in a saucepan, boil the water the put salt and stir. Add the couscous and remove it from the heat and wait for five minutes. Make sure that the couscous absorbed all of the water, the end product must be light and fluffy.

On a separate pan, sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil, add the turkey and wait until the outer meat of the turkey is cooked, add the cashew and pine nuts. Add the soy sauce and teriyaki sauce and cook it for one minute. Then add the chicken or turkey stock, let it simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, then add the red bell pepper and mushroom. Add the cream and wait for 5 minutes or until the sauce has thicken. Add salt and pepper to adjust the flavour. Plate the couscous with the turkey, take a picture before eating. Bon Appetit Mes Amis : )

Roast Pork and Roast Potatoes

I could never give-up pork... All of my favourite dish is made of pork... My favourite food is tied between Siopao Bola Bola and Siopao Asado and the latter is made of pork. This particular dish that I cooked for my supper was so good. It is the pork's belly so the fat marbles explicitly with the meat. It is heaven as the fat melts like a butter when eaten, such divine. I don't like praising my own food creation, but this time... this is such an epiphany. The roast potato balances the greasy and heavy pork so it is a perfect combination. Easy to make and delicious.

Ingredients:

Pork Belly

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Cloves

Potato

Parsley

Direction:

Rub the pork belly with salt and pepper and put into an ovenproof pan that is brushed with olive oil then dash olive oil into the pork belly. Crush the garlic cloves and put it in the pan. Leave it in the oven on a 180 C or 160 C Mark 6 for 45 minutes. For the roast potato, cut the potatoes into four and boil it for 11 to 14 minutes. Drain and dry. I know it says roast potato, but what I did is fried the potato in a frying pan using some of the oil from the pork belly, in that way, I am binding the taste of the pork and the potato. Also, take some of the garlic cloves that weren't burnt, mash and mix it in the potatoes while frying. Plate it, sprinkle some parsley and take a picture before eating. Bon appetit mes amis! 

Strawberry Cheese Cupcakes

I truly love cupcakes because it's easier to make yet as tasty as the next scrumptious cake there is. Plus the limitless way of designing a cupcake is fun. Even without formal baking or food decorating skills, one will definitely find making a cupcake easy and enjoyable. To achieve the milky strawberry taste, I added Nesquick Strawberry Milk to the cupcake itself and the cheese frosting.

Ingredients:

100g Sugar

100g Self-Raising Flour

4-6 Tbsp Nesquick Strawberry Milk Powder

5 Tbsp Milk

1-2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

2 Eggs

Strawberries

Cream Cheese

Direction:

Preheat the oven at 180 C. Mix the butter and sugar then slowly add the eggs. Add the vanilla extract too. Sift the flour and mix it with the wet ingredients. Dissolve the 4 to 5 tbsp of nesquick powder to the 4 tbsp of milk then add it to the cupcake batter/ Put the mixed ingredients to the tin with paper cups and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 160 C. Let it cool. Dissolve 1 tbsp of nesquick powder to 1 tbsp of milk and mix it to the cream cheese. Spread the cream cheese and top it with strawberries.

Sunny Side-up with Toast, Tomato, Cheese and Greens

This is very easy, basically, you just fry an egg, toast some bread and put whatever toppings you want. I like tomato, cheese and green leafy vegetable... so that's what I've put in my food. My uncle told me that it has a proper flemish name... but I forgot the name already. Anyway, this is so wonderful because it may look like a breakfast meal, but the truth is, this dish is more than a breakfast food.

Direction:

Just fry the egg ala sunny side up, toast the bread, top it with sliced tomato, any kind of green leafy vegetables, mine was watercress and spinach. Grate some cheese, add salt and pepper and a bit of extra virgin olive oil then put the egg on top. Sprinkle some smoked paprika.

Grilled Chicken in Garlic and Parsley Butter Sauce with Watercrest and Apple Salad

It's been quite awhile now since I last posted an article related to food... so much had happened for the last month or so that I took cooking for granted. Anyhow, being dramatic should not take a toll on my cooking, but since what I am experiencing right now is more than just being dramatic, cooking somehow is set aside. Don't get me wrong, I still love cooking, I still love eating, though I have to admit that there are times that getting up and try to cook is a struggle. My uncle as of now does the majority of cooking, and as the true master chef of the house, he had shown exemplary dishes all through out my sick days. I sometimes feel ashamed for not helping him, maybe I should do more effort to do some cutting of the vegetable and stuff. Anyway, the dish that my uncle cooked is absolutely magnifique! The chicken is so tender and the butter sauce is absolutely divine. It is light and a straightforward dish, no fuzz in making just a very easy yet classy in the palate dish.

Ingredients:

Chicken Dish:

4-6 Breast Chicken

100 g of Butter 

2 Garlic Cloves

Parsley

Salt

Pepper

Salad:

Watercrest

1 Apple sliced

Tomato

Salt

Pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Direction:

Mix the butter (room temperature), mashed garlic and parsley and set aside. Put butter on a grill and cook the chicken until golden brown. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the butter with garlic and parsley at the last minute of cooking, melt it and serve.

Toss the salad, plate it and add the chicken, take a picture before eating. Bon Appetit Mes Amis : )

Banana Bread

I absolutely have no clue in baking, the last time I baked something was a major flop, people say that it's good, but I think they just don't want to hurt my feelings, because I can clearly see that the end product was terrible. I am referring to this Banana Bread, everything was wrong, except for the taste. I do like the taste in fairness to my banana bread the thing is, the outside was hard and the inside seems to be not baked properly as it appears to be still wet. I have three possible answers to my question, first and possibly the main reason for such disaster is that instead of putting two bananas on the wet ingredients as it was indicated on the recipe book I copied, I put three bananas. I put three bananas because there were three bananas left and it's getting too ripe and I don't want to waste it just by throwing it, and I will certainly not eat an over-ripe banana as it tastes awful. I think because of that move, I made the wet ingredients too heavy. Also, I think that I kept opening the oven as the bread is still on it's baking process. Lastly, I think I didn't give enough time for my bread to be baked. Whatever the reason for this disaster, I believe that I've learned a lesson. Though, I have to admit, I should've learned this thing a long time ago because I had been attempting to bake since last year, but I couldn't just get it right. Though I promise that I will not give up, because someday I will prove to everybody that I can bake a decent cake, muffin, cupcake, bread, cookies or whatever, so that they will no longer lie to me and pretend that my creation is good, in the future, they will tell me how good baker I am. In this time though, I will take my time. Funny how I can relate baking with my situation right now, I won't elaborate on that "situation", but certainly, things must not be rushed, just like giving ample time for my bread to bake. I have to follow things the right way just like following the amount of ingredients needed and don't make any shortcuts just like opening the oven too soon. Things will come on it's own term, so that someday, I will be who I am (very enigmatic, right? lol). I've learned a lot of lessons in life, but I couldn't guarantee that I make good choices and decisions because there are times that no matter how many times I fall, I kept repeating some of my mistakes that will lead to my second, third or how many downfalls, but no matter how much bruise and cuts I recieve from that fall, one thing that I've learned from it... and that is to never give up.

Just in case you want to make a banana bread... here's the proper ingredients and direction...

Ingredients:

2 Ripe Bananas

170g Caster Sugar

170g Self Raising Flour

170g Soft Butter

3 Eggs

1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

Direction:

Preheat the oven to 160C/ gas mark 3. On a food processor, add all the ingredients starting with the wet ingredients then the sugar and sif the flour and blend until well mixed. Pour into lined loaf tin and bake for 1 hour. Cool, take a picture before eating. Bon Appetit Mes Amis : )

British Adobo (Adobo with Apples and Cream)

As I promised, I am going to make a British Adobo... and I absolutely love it! There was a movie called American Adobo before and since I've been posting adobo for days now, that prompted me to create British Adobo. I actually have no idea what British Adobo really is, I just assumed that if I'm going to make that kind of dish, I better use British products like red wine vinegar, british apples and double cream... Yup, you heard it right, double cream... because I want my adobo to be creamy, so that it would be different. I was afraid that this experiment of mine would be a disaster though because I was fearful that once I poured the double cream to the sauce with vinegar on it, the cream might curdled... but I was relieved that it didn't happened. I was also afraid that the apples might sweeten the adobo too much, again, nothing went wrong, I absolutely love the end product. With modesty aside, even my uncle and auntie loved it. I promise that I will cook this again so that others can experience this untraditional adobo of mine. Just don't bash me in front of my face because I'm sensitive. lol. I am being adventurous with the food I cook now, and this is proof of that, and I am happy that people liked it : )

Ingredients:

4 Loin Porks (cut into cubes)
6 Tbsp Soy Sauce
6 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 Cup Double Cream
4 Apples
1 Onion
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Cup Water
Pepper
5 Bay Leaves
Rosemary
Dill
Olive Oil
Salt

Direction:

On a casserole, saute onion and garlic in olive oil then add the pork, brown the pork and cook for awhile on medium heat fire. Add the soy sauce and let it boil, pour the cup of water, then add the bay leaves, rosemary, dill and pepper, let it simmer for 30 minutes on low fire, partially covering it. Add the red wine vinegar an let it boil. Add th apples and cook for 10 minutes then pour the double cream. Adjust the seasoning by adding more soy sauce or salt. Plate it, take a picture before eating. Bon Appetit Mes Amis : )

Porc Au Lait (Pork Cooked in Milk)

I'm going back to France once again, this time around I'm bringing milk with me. As traditional French Cuisine, it is common for a dish to be creamy, and this one is not an exeption, it is buttery and milky, my kind of food. Though, one should be aware that this kind of food are not really good for someone who is trying to loose weight, so I guess, it's either stay away from this or cook this with adjustments, like I did. What I did was, instead of using full fat milk I used skimmed milk, I also used low-fat butter and trimmed the fats of the pork. Yes, I am trying to shed some pounds because I want to have a healthy life, I don't want to be tachypneic or tachycardic easily everytime I move. I also want to look good in clothes, I know this second reasoning is shallow, but you wouldn't understand this unleast you're in my same shoes, especially if you've been living on the heavier side for the majority of your life. I remember before, when I went to my province and I was on my heaviest, I weight 195 lbs. and people were just mean to me, this particular person told me I was so fat, it's not normal anymore, I don't look normal anymore... It was like I was pierced by a sword when she told me those words, I just kept quiet and pretended I am happy, but those words are one of the reasons why I want to lose weight. I am now happy to say though that I have shed some pounds, from 195 lbs to 149 lbs... and I am still trying to be fitter by eating healthy and by excercise (thanks Zumba and Pussycat Dolls DVD Workout. lol). It is true, there will always be people who is going to judge you by the way you look, and everyone of us is like that, it is human nature for us to judge and ridicule, but if we can do something, if we can change things, then do it. Or we could just ignore those people and embrace our flaws and stand up, either way, it is your life, just remember that whatever people thinks of you, there will be those who will always love and support you. Though the best thing to do is to think that when we ridicule someone, things comes back to us, I think we should all be nicer, I know I have some faults, but I gues, it's never too late to change, it is never too late to be a better person. Anyway, back to this dish, I always think of French Cuisine as complicated and hard to prepare, but this one is the absolute contrary of what I was thinking, Porc Au lait is one of the easiest food you can cook.

Ingredients:

4 to 6 Loin or Shoulder Pork
2 garlic cloves
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp Low Fat Butter
1 Thyme
1 to 5 Bay Leaf
2 to 4 Cups of Skimmed Milk

Direction:

On a large flameproof caserole, melt the butter and fry the pork until it is browned on all sides. Add the bay leaf and the thyme, as well as the milk, bring into a boil slowly. Cover and cook in a preheated moderate oven (160 C or 325 F, Gas Mark 3) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the pork is tender. If you don't have an oven, just cook it in the stove and let it cook for 2 hours on low to medium heat. Turn the pork during halfway of cooking. Transfer the pork into a serving dish and boil the milk rapidly to reduce slightly then season it to taste. If there is a cudled milk formed, strain the milk and discard the curdled milk. Plate it, take a picture before eating. Bon Appetit Mes Amis : )