Girl, you know you shine

 I have become very much enamoured by gold recently! I had been eyeing a watch designed by Marc Jacobs for quite some time and was sad to discover that not all of his Marc by Marc Jacobs line was stocked down south. In Australia. But this is where online shopping gives us a helping hand! It really is quite handy (but probably a bad thing simultaneously!) that you are almost constantly a mere click away from being able to buy anything you want.

My boyfriend was lovely enough to buy this for me from ShopBop and I had been waiting excitedly for just over a week for it to arrive in the mail. Sure enough, it came early in the morning at around 8am just yesterday! I was surprised by the large box as it only contained a mere watch but all was explained when I excitedly tore into the packaging to discover that there was a lot of foam and brown paper used to protect your purchase. Of course the watch itself was packaged, but there was also another ShopBop gift box that encased it.

Even the box is pretty!

Marc by Marc Jacobs Henry Glitz Watch, RRP $275.00

The watch itself was beautiful! It was a bit bigger than what I was expecting but it makes it all the easier to read the face. Us Asians are small in general so our wrists are quite tiny. Therefore, the watch was quite big but after watching a handy YouTube video on how to remove links, I successfully removed three links and it now fit much better! I never realised how easy it was and saved myself the time and money if I had gotten it professionally done.

Another purchase I made myself a while ago on Spreets was this necklace. My name never pops up anywhere so when I saw this offer, I found it pretty hard to resist! Yes, it may be a bit obnoxious but it's so Carrie! (Sex and the City)

This deal was amazingly cheap so I had to get it. I waited oh so patiently for this to arrive. It took about a month! But it arrived in the end and I'm very happy with this purchase. I'm pretty sure they have a website where you can customise your own name necklace too. Ouffer currently has a deal for name necklaces too if anyone is interested (:

But for now, I'm going to happily add these to my bling collection :D

Happy Tuesday everyone!
xx

finally mine!

After dealing with a horrible relationship between this phone and I...

I finally upgraded to the new iPhone 5! Oh how I missed my first iPhone after it died on me and I've dreamed about the iPhone 5 ever since the disappointing launch of the 4S. So I finally treated myself to this prettyful. Isn't it beautiful?

I cannot wait to chuck away the other piece of s*&% and use this one! Especially the panorama function.

I cannot get over how gorgeous that white is. Haha, I'm swooning over a phone.

Happy Wednesday everybody!

ZenQ Desserts, CBD

Spent early afternoon tramping around Cockatoo Island with the boy trying to get photos for my studio project which is actually due very soon... Crap. But trying not to think about that... I wasted time until mid afternoon with the boy. I was going to buy some macarons from Laduree but the line was so incredibly long. What are people doing at 2:30 anyway?! So I suppose I will have to wait until next time.

I met up with A, F and M for an afternoon dessert snack! Since A is back from Melbourne for a short few days and F is also leaving for Adelaide once again this weekend. But gee, I really ought to cut down on some of that sugar. But it really was delicious sugar! I love Asian desserts because of all the chewy extras that we can add in.

Coconut sago with taro, $6.80

Ok, this really does not look too appetising. It really just looks like a pool of white... But the taro pieces were really deliciously sweet and the coconut sago was amazing! Though to be honest, it's really hard to mess coconut sago up unless you dilute it waaay too much...

Red bean soup with ZenQ signature Q balls and pearls, $6.50 + jelly cake, $0.60 + sweet potato, $0.60

This was a bowl full of chewy goodness! The Q balls were apparently sweet potato, taro and matcha flavoured. I could taste the difference between the three, but I couldn't really tell they were these specific flavours... But they were really good regardless. The jelly cakes were slippery suckers and the sweet potato was also extra sweet as it had been marinated in honey.

The honey toasts looked amazing as they were being brought out for other tables - I know what I'm ordering next time! They also have a lot of $5.50 afternoon specials which we somehow missed after zooming in straight for the menu... If we had only gotten the red bean sago that was on the specials menu! Oh well.

I love how we can so easily talk about nothing and everything for almost 3 hours straight and it still felt like no time had passed whatsoever. I really do miss having all of you here constantly to talk to whenever I want and it really was wonderful being able to catch up with you girls again and can't wait until summer break!

ZenQ Desserts
181/569 George St
Sydney, NSW, 2000
9267 9880

pre-order excitement

Quick blog post while I procrastinate from uni work. I have a 50% portfolio due tomorrow along with another 40% presentation on Thursday! I've been almost delirious from lack of sleep - living on about 3 hours a night at the moment. My entire cohort are exhausted from all this work! I cannot wait for Thursday night. I might even just sleep all weekend - Sleeping Beauty style ;)

Anyway, on a bright note, I pre-ordered the iPhone 5 on Virgin! I've been with the company for so many years now and the free texts and calls Virgin to Virgin are definitely worth it. But happy days! I will finally have a new phone at the latest by next week! My Nokia is almost unusable... Every time I lock it, the screen will go weird on me and to be able to see things on the screen, I have to restart the phone. Plus I really hate how it runs on Simbian. So I think that really does call for a new one. I'm getting it in white which is super exciting. I cannot wait to download a whole tonne of fitness apps to use on it :D

Hello sexy iPhone!

Also been watching X-Factor whilst drawing up diagrams for our presentation. I love the super group the judges created this year! And the rapper is pretty damn awesome. I'm in love with his tattoo HAHA. But seriously, I can't believe they called themselves "The Collective".

...

THE COLLECTIVE. WHAT KIND OF NAME IS THAT?! What surprises me even more was that people voted for this name and it was the most popular. Really is not a catchy band name. But they do sound amazing ♥

I'm pretty sure I'm one of the biggest fangirls out, for almost everything. Especially The Vampire Diaries which is coming back soon which I am super excited about! I have missed the cast's hotness in my life.

Time to get back to working - definitely no fun :( See you all on the other side! (Which really isn't because I have to spend all of mid-sem break catching up on other units...)

Happy Tuesday everyone!

xx

Happy birthday A!

Bought the green tea gateau from Bread Top! It was really light and fluffy and yum! Haha, looks like a model with fake grass on it...

And I swear we didn't set off the fire alarm in our building lighting the 20 birthday candles.

Asian-style peanut noodle salad

After my workout this morning, I was feeling quite hungry and wanted to make something filling. We had a little bit of peanut butter left in the jar and I decided it'd be good to use it all up!

To make these noodles, I used Japanese konnyaku/shirataki noodles. They are made from the natural plant fibres of konjac yam plant and have close to zero calories and carbs! That's right, you heard me, ALMOST ZERO! So fantastic for those of you who want to diet yet still want meals that will fill you up. Check out the nutritional information below!

What you will notice about these noodles when you open them up is the pungent fishy smell of the solution they use to soak the noodles in (otherwise the noodles will disintegrate as they are made from natural plant fibres) so I would really recommend really rinsing these noodles out for a few minutes at least until that smell is gone or else you WILL taste it in your dish! I also let it sit in boiling water after I rinsed it to warm up the noodles and also to ensure that smell is no longer there. These noodles on their own however don't have much of a taste so it's great for using to soak up the flavours of the sauce that you will use. I really enjoy the chewy texture of these noodles as well! Personally, I absolutely love these noodles!

This recipe really is quite flexible and you can add any vegetables or meat that you like! I love the wonderful colours that sit so prettily in the bowl and makes it quite reminiscent of the Korean rice dish bibimbap. It is also really quick to prepare so who's hungry?

Asian-style peanut noodle salad
An original recipe by Crystal Noir

Dressing sauce for the vegetables
2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
Chilli oil to taste (depending on how spicy you want it!)

Peanut sauce for the noodles
1 teaspoons Asian fish sauce
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Chilli oil to taste

Tuna and noodle salad
1 can tuna (I used springwater and can easily be subbed for mushrooms or edamame beans for you vegetarians/vegans out there! Personally though, I think some pieces of marinated chicken would taste better than tuna.)
100 grams noodles of choice
Cucumber, cut into a thin julienne
Carrots, cut into a thin julienne
Spring onion/scallions, chopped
Roasted peanuts, chopped
A GOOGY EGG WOULD ALSO BE FANTASTIC WITH THIS!

Make the dipping sauce
Whisk ingredients in a small serving bowl, making sure to dissolve the sugar. Pour equal amounts into the carrots and cucumber and let it pickle slightly for at least 15 minutes.

Make the peanut dressing
In a blender or small food processor, puree all ingredients to a smooth sauce, about the thickness of heavy cream. Pour into a serving bowl. OR you could just do what I did which was mix it all in the jar that the peanut butter came in until all incorporated!

For the noodles
Rinse under a running tap for a few minutes in a colander and then drain. Move the noodles into a separate bowl and cover with boiling water, letting it sit for about 5 minutes or so.

To serve
If you make this in larger amounts, you could just put all the vegetables in separate bowls and let everyone choose and decorate their own portion. If you're making it yourself, toss the noodles with the peanut sauce until well incorporated (don't be shy about adding a bit of extra water to help it mix better).

Add the vegetables and tuna on top of each bowl and scatter with chopped peanuts and spring onion. Serve!

Hayfever

Currently I really am not feeling well. The weather is starting to warm up and my hayfever has come back with full force. My nose is sensitive from excess blowing and eyes are watering like crazy. I really look like a mess!

I shall leave you guys with a pair of sunglasses that I custom made for my friend's birthday! The glasses themselves are in the style of Rayban Wayfarer's and I made them super cute and cartoony. I hope she wears them :D They really did turn out better than I expected to be honest.

Kansai, Wynyard

C decided to organise dinner at Kansai because what do boys absolutely love? Buffet. Especially when there is expensive fish on the menu. I, being a girl, was apprehensive about it because honestly, how much can one small Asian girl eat?! But I decided to go along anyway because I always enjoy C, J, V and E's company and for $29.50, I thought "Why not?"

I ended up eating almost as much as all the boys! Since at Kansai you have to order your food, and we were a group of 5 so they asked for lots of 5 for everything that we did order! Salmon aburi was ordered in massive bouts, as well as the soft-shelled crab hand rolls which were absolutely delicious. I loved the specialty rolls as well! The dragon rolls were definitely a hit, along with the deep fried sushi called "Crunch" which had an absolutely delicious crisp outer batter and we also managed to try the Volcano rolls which were also pretty good. Of course, you can't go to an all you can eat without ordering sashimi nigiri! And some sashimi salad for your daily dose of greens. We ended with some prawn tempura which were pretty nice with the dipping sauce. This time, I definitely ate much more than my money's worth! It was great catching up while stuffing ourselves stupid and I definitely learnt a few new things, namely "spitroasting" which, trust me, is not something you want to know about!

I did not know how they did it, but the boys still had room to fit in Noggi afterwards with the logic that "It's liquid and can seep through the cracks of food in your stomach". But I seriously could not do it! That didn't stop them from dragging me with them to Strathfield anyway.

It definitely was a fun night spent talking, laughing and of course, eating. I'm glad I decided to go despite my untouched uni homework which is piling up into a mountain... Time to pick up my game!

Have a good start to the week everyone!
xx

Coconut cherry swirl loaf

For the rest of the year, I have really made it my goal to exercise at least 3 times a week despite all the work load that the university semester will bring. This is really a short term goal as I plan on exercising regularly from now on - it WILL be incorporated into my lifestyle! I do not really like exercising first thing in the morning on an empty stomach as I always feel queasy afterwards and if I eat breakfast first, I will feel the oncomings of a runner's nightmare - a stitch. So I normally go for a run mid-afternoon or at night!

My grandparents had bought an excess of cherries and once again, my dad was fretting about them going bad. As well as that 2kg tub of yogurt he bought. So once again, I was stuck with the duty to finish off all these things. I picked out the good ones to bring to uni as a snack (yay!) and this seemed like a wonderful way to use up the cherries! I decided to use this jam in a yogurt cake after the success of the lemon version.

The swirl within the cake is quite simple to do. Pour in half the cake batter, spoon on some cherry jam, pour on remaining batter, spoon on remaining jam, use a skewer and swirl!

I put this in the oven as I went for my run.

I don't know if it was because I knew that this was waiting for me when I got home, but I swear I ran extra fast today!

And what greeted me after that long and strenuous run was this.

This loaf was moist and not too sweet - definitely the perfect post workout snack. Especially when fresh from the oven!

Mmm, look at that wonderful crumb from the yogurt. The top browned quite quickly despite the middle of the cake not being cooked yet. I would probably lower the temperature to 160C next time and cook it for longer, maybe 75 minutes?


Coconut cherry swirl loaf
an original recipe by Crystal Noir

Coconut cake
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup whole milk plain unsweetened natural yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

Cherry jam
2 cups pitted cherries, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon corn flour
1 tablespoon caster  sugar

Method
1. You can either prepare the cherry jam or just use about 3/4-1 cup jam of choice. Add pitted cherries, sugar and corn flour into a food processor. Process until it is chunky or to a texture of your liking.

2. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the sides of a 23x12cm loaf pan with oil and line the bottom and sides with baking paper.

3. Spread coconut on a separate tray and toast until golden brown. Remove from oven.

4. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil and sugar. Beat the 3 eggs in a separate bowl and pour into the large mixing bowl, whisking until combined. Stir in toasted coconut until combined.

5. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, right over the yogurt mix and stir with a spoon until just combined (make sure not to overmix!)

6. Pour half the batter into the prepared cake pan and spoon on cherry jam. Pour on the remaining batter and top with the remaining cherry jam. Swirl the jam with a skewer - be careful not to overswirl! Bake for 60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cover loaf with foil if it browns before it is completely cooked.

7. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let it stand for 10 minutes. Transfer the cake onto a plate. When cool, cut and serve. Yum!

High tea, Zumborons & Batman!

Today was my first experience of high tea! With me, I had my wonderful workmates A, D and J and it was the last time we could talk to J before she leaves for the USA for exchange this semester - how exciting! I am incredibly jealous because she gets to go to America. What a lucky ducky.

J confirmed our booking and we were lead inside to our table with comfy plush seats! I was instantly wowed by the decor in the Tea Room on the Northern side of QVB. The high ceilings, chandeliers and flora wallpaper created such a sophisticated atmosphere. We had all decided on traditional high tea ($39 per person during weekdays) with pots of Vanilla, Milma Gold and Green Dragon tea. D said she was going to be an hour late as she had to run a few errands for her mum and encouraged us to order first.

I love the classic floral chinaware! Our tea had arrived first and we all tried each other's orders. The Milma Gold was described to be spicily fruity but we all agreed that it lacked any aroma at all and didn't have any of these elements at all! We were quite disappointed that it tasted like the black teas you can buy in bags at the supermarket. The vanilla tea however, but wonderfully aromatic. The Green Dragon was also a favourite as it was a light and refreshing green tea.

Our high tea stand!

Scones, spinach & cheese pastries

The scones were served on a separate plate and arrived warm. We started with the spinach and cheese pastries which were really good with nice, flaky, buttery pastry! The absolute real winner here were the scones though. The outside was nice and crispy with a deliciously fluffy inside. Of course, we topped them with lots of cream and jam ;) Check out the monster scone in the background!

Egg, cucumber & beef sandwiches, savoury custard tarts

I don't know what it is, but there's just something decadent about eating sandwiches with the crusts cut off for you! I enjoyed all the sandwiches but the beef one had to be my favourite. Egg sandwiches are always good and it's pretty hard to mess one up haha. I couldn't particularly tell what the tarts were made of - they were creamy, yet slightly eggy at the same time. A bit hard to discern, but it tasted nice and was gone in a bite! The base goes soggy quite quickly so I would suggest eating these first.

Fruit tarts, opera cakes

I really enjoyed the opera cake! It tasted like a creamy tiramisu and was gone much too quickly. The fruit tart was also nice, the sweet fruit and cream giving way to a buttery shell.

Raspberry macarons, passionfruit melting moments, lemon meringue tarts, mini lemon cupcakes

A favourite on this stand would have to be the mini lemon cupcakes! The cake itself was really flavoursome and moist.

Service was a tad slow, but we had several refills in our pots throughout the afternoon without having to ask. The company however, made up for this and it ended up being a lovely afternoon which went by much too quickly. As we were leaving, we realised we had been sitting and chatting for 4 hours! Oh how time flies by when you are enjoying so many lovely sweets with delightful company ;)

I met up with the boy after I said my goodbyes to the girls and he had a late lunch/extremely early dinner at Pepper Lunch (happy hour from 2-6pm!) before we headed off to The Star. I had some macarons to buy!

I was very disappointed with service there. The girl that served me looked like she didn't want to be there and was blatantly very rude. My sister had wanted some popcorn macarons so I asked whether they had any as I saw some on the storage shelves next to the counter. She cut me off saying they had nothing except for what was in the counter. So I picked out from what was there and left.

From left to right: 2 salted butter caramel, custard crunch, malted milk, peach ice tea, mandarin & yogurt

The first one I tried had been the mandarin and yogurt one and it had gone extremely soggy. To the point that it had almost falled apart when I tried picking it up. And it didn't taste absolutely stunning either as all I could taste was tangerine and absolutely nothing from the yogurt - no tang whatsoever. So I would not recommend getting this one. I've gotten salted caramel and peach ice tea before, so they are always winners. The unexpected surprise was the custard crunch! It had a wonderful creaminess and a little piece of crunchy biscuit in the middle. The malted milk one was nice, but nothing spectacular.

Charlotte, $9.00

INNARDS!! From bottom up: coconut sable, soft coconut sponge, pineapple compote, pineapple cremeaux, toasted white chocolate & pepper mousse, toasted white chocolate

I enjoyed this cake and I could actually taste the pepper! At first, I was like hm what's the flavour that seems so familiar yet I can't place? And then I figured that it was pepper!! Don't worry, it's not like eating a spoonful of pepper, it only gives a slight kick. The cake was pretty yummy overall, though the V8 and coconut mille fuille still holds a higher place in my heart.

Number 2, salted caramel & white chocolate, $5.50 for 2 scoops

We also made a pit stop at Gelato Messina with their tempting gelato displays! It was raining and we did not want to venture outside into the wind and cold and decided to buy some gelato instead. At first I was like why is it called Number 2? But I decided to question it not after I tasted it. Peanut butter gelato, chocolate brownie bits and dulce de leche all in one scoop? I died in a little pool of deliciousness. It was so good. And salted caramel was good, but it couldn't hold a flame next to Mr Number 2. I must go back to eat more of you!

Even after we finished our gelato, it was still dismal outside. But we had to go out to catch our bus as we had a movie date with several other friends at Burwood to watch Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. The cinemas were pretty packed despite being quite a late session. I had my doubts about Anne Hathaway being Catwoman but she was actually really good! I really enjoyed the movie, it was incredibly epic. I shall not write about any more in fear of spoiling it for everyone else!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

xx

Yogurt love

I spent the day with the boy today which was definitely nice and relaxing as I don't have the chance to hang with him as much as I'd like to. He drove over to my place and I made him sunbake with me outside as the weather was so nice! I was craving baked eggs so that was what I made for lunch and it went beautifully with bread.

After lunch, we hit up Westfield Burwood where I had to buy a few things, namely oats and some sugar-free drinking chocolate. I managed to score a box of Lindt's Swiss Gold Dark Chocolate Pralines for $5, saving $10!! I was ecstatic. I don't understand why it was so cheap though... Is it because people aren't into dark chocolate as much as milk or white? Well, I definitely am not complaining because they taste amazing.

And what day is complete without frozen yogurt? Noggi is like my second home.

I love their blood orange flavour! I know you guys have probably heard me rave about Noggi's blood orange frozen yogurt many times but it tastes sooo good. And I was super happy they still had to flavour there from last week so it was a definite order along with our usual biscotti. And no frozen yogurt is complete without toppings! You can only see pineapple there but there was mochi and almonds underneath the mound of pineapple. A combination of chewy, crunchy, and juicy. Bliss.

Baked Eggs
an original recipe by Crystal Noir

Serves 2

This is the type of recipe that you need to keep safe for a cold Winter's day. It really is so simple to make, and it will warm you right up. Just serve with some buttered toast or you can even make some garlic bread to mop up the flavoursome sauce.

Ingredients

1 large tomato, cut into chunks
4-6 tablespoons tomato paste or your choice of sauce (I used Leggo's tomato and mozzarella oven bake)
50g frozen corn, defrosted
50g mozzarella cheese or your choice of cheese
2 eggs
salt and pepper
Spring onion to garnish
Bread to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Divide the tomato paste between the two ramekins. Top with tomato chunks, corn, and any other vegetables of your preference (you can add in as many vegetables as you want or as much as your ramekin can fit! You could add mushroom, peas, etc. The possibilities are endless. I even added a tablespoon of leftover fried rice here! And I'm sure you meatlovers out there might want to add in some bacon, ham or even some chorizo). Add shredded cheese and break an egg on top. Season liberally with salt and pepper and sprinkle spring onion on top. Bake in the oven for 10-20 minutes or until egg is cooked through. Serve with char grilled bread.

What's cracking?

I'm really excited - I managed to open my very own coconut! I saw some drinking coconut in Coles in the refridgerated section and I just had to buy one even though I had absolutely no idea how to open it. But good old handy Youtube helped me in that regard.

I also did not know how nutritious coconut water is! So not only am I drinking something that tastes delicious, it's good for me too!

Here are just some benefits of coconut water:

• Coconut water is filled with vitamins, antioxidants, amino acids, enzymes, electrolytes, and minerals (particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium). Because of its high electrolyte content, it makes the perfect drink during and after working out!
   
• Coconut water is effective in relieving dehydration, fatigue, constipation, and other digestive disturbances, kidney and bladder disorders, and vision problems such as glaucoma and cataracts.
  
  
• Research shows that coconut water can improve blood circulation, lower elevated blood pressure, and reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes.
   
• Coconut water also has an alkazlising effect on the body, helping to counteract or balance the effects of acidifying foods which are so common in our diets.

Wow, with all these benefits, I really should drink coconut water much more often! Though a word of warning about the packaged coconut water - they taste nowhere near as good or fresh and many of them have added sugars and preservatives so that they can have a long shelf life. I also question whether all these minerals and electrolytes can still be stored in the water for that long so I would definitely go nowhere near those and buy the fresh ones instead! It only cost me $1.80 for one of them at Coles.

I also have to share this with you guys - LOOK AT ALL THESE COOL FLAVOURS OF GUM!

It taste like dessert in a stick of gum minus all that butter, sugar, and empty calories! Could you get any more Willy Wonka-esque? ;)

A long day out

I was out from 9:30 this morning until basically 10:30. So it was indeed a long day out! Originally, M made plans for CM, A and I as he's down in Sydney for uni break before heading up to Townsville again really soon. So it was intended as a quick lunch as CM has already started uni (sucked in UNSW kids) and he had class from 3-5 in the afternoon. We had decided to eat at New Shanghai in Chatswood Chase as I had really been craving sheng jian bao (pan fried pork buns) and nian gao (rice cakes) and boy am I glad we went! The sheng jian bao had nice crispy bottoms and soupy innards! The xiao long bao were also good and at the high standard to what I normally expect when eating xiao long bao because I do eat them a lot as I am Shanghainese. I also really enjoyed the XO sauce stir-fried rice cakes and lamb and leek dumplings as well. The food here is really good so I definitely recommend! It was great talking to M, A and CM and it reminds me how much I missed them all.

Since A is leaving for Melbourne tomorrow, we decided to gatecrash her dinner with F, B and W in Strathfield so we could squeeze in that little extra time to hang out and chill! I told them I'd meet them in Strathfield after I picked up my paintings from uni. First thing we did after we all met up was go to Noggi and I saw that they still had the blood orange flavour! I was really excited and ordered a multi with biscotti and blood orange. The guy working at the counter (I swear he recognises me because I go so often and I always see him working there...) was like "Are you sure a multi is enough for the 6 of you?" And I laughed because we probably would demolish it pretty fast. We broke M's froyo virginity and he absolutely loved the biscotti and mochi so that was a good sign! After chatting in Noggi for a while, F wanted "man food" (ie MEAT) so we left in search of a Korean restaurant - easy peasy as Strathfield is K-TOWN. We just went into any one that looked alright because they all seemed similar and settled right in. Us girls weren't that hungry so we ordered a mushroom bibimbap in an attempt to get our vegetable nutrition in for the day. Though the food wasn't as important as talking throughout the night and I honestly have not laughed this much in one night in quite some time. I've forgotten how funny these boys are and I really do enjoy their company! Pity I don't see them more, really. Seriously, I do not even know how half these things came up about the queen and cockroaches for goodness sake! Everything was for a laugh though so it was all alright (:

M drove A, CM and I home so thank you for the lift! And thank you A for the lovely present - can't wait to use these cookie recipes! :D

xx

Happy birthday daddy!

My father dearest turns 49 today! One year away from being half a century old ;) Despite my plans to serve courses, my dad had a craving for soy braised fish and was adamant on cooking some Chinese vegetable stirfries. He also thought that I should take it slow and not be too ambitious when cooking for a large number of people for the first time. Well, he did have a point there... We had invited my grandparents and uncle over as well because they have been cooking dinner for us very often lately! And it was about time they got to relax. Out of the dishes that I did cook, I'm definitely the proudest of my ratatouille and my spaghetti with a ragout of oriental mushrooms.

I did particular love this Pixar film. What's not to love about an adorable rat who can cook? Though in real life, I don't think any rat could be adorable. Even if it could cook. Ah how cartoons can make even the most ugliest of animals cute in some way. Anyway, I digress.

This dish is actually quite easy to make and the vegetables become so soft from the long braising process in the oven. For a dish so simple, I found it extremely delicious and satisfying. The hardest part was probably the layering but once I got going, I got into the rhythm of things and found myself in a state of nirvana almost ;)

Thomas Keller's original recipe for the movie is more complicated than mine and you can find it here. But I thought I'd go with something more simple before attempting his version. Instead, I adapted a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen.

Ratatouille
an original recipe by Crystal Noir

Ingredients

2 VERY small onions (probably half a normal sized onion), sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup tomato puree (I used a mix of tomato puree and tomato sauce)
1 zucchini
2 roma tomatos
2 baby eggplants
1 yellow bell pepper
Lemon juice
Balsamic vinegar (I used about 2-3 tablespoons)
Salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. While oven is heating, pour tomato puree into the bottom of an oval baking dish (or whatever shape you want really) and scatter the minced garlic and sliced onion on top of the sauce. Season sauce generously with salt and pepper.

2. I'd recommend that all us non-Iron chefs use a mandoline slicer for the process of cutting the vegetables to make our lives easier - unless of course you are a ninja slicer and have mad samurai sword skills. Trim off the edges of the vegetables and slice the zucchini and tomatoes on the mandoline to about 2mm in thickness. I found that cutting the bell pepper by hand was easier.
TIP: Slice the eggplants last as they oxidise quickly! Squeeze some lemon juice on them to prevent this from happening.

3. Arrange the sliced vegetables on top of the tomato sauce so that they are overlapping each other and about 1/2 centimetre is exposed, alternating between dark and light colours for the most contrast. For example, zucchini (dark), tomato (light), eggplant (dark), pepper (light). Season generously with salt and pepper, and add a splash of balsamic vinegar. You can also sprinkle over some fresh herbs (oregano, parsley, thyme, etc) if you like.

4. Wrap baking dish in foil and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes - 1 hour. You want the vegetables to retain their shape and not be completely limp but clearly cooked through.

5. Serve with bread, couscous, or anything that takes your fancy really!