Knife skill - Is it important in cooking ?

Knife skill is an art which I personally feel that is important for cooking. The way a person cut the ingredients is important. Sometimes cooking the dish requires the ingredient to be cut in a certain way so that the dish will taste either more crunchy or can help a family to have more dishes.

There are various type of cutting skills.  They are the slice, the chop, the  back slice and the rock chop.

Today I am showing the video on the slice

Hope this will help for the budding chefs to master the knife skills just like me ...constantly learning new ways for cutting with the knife.

Relationship Wednesdays- How to have self control discipline and ruling over your feelings

There are many at times where we would not hesitate to consider other's feelings when there is an argument . I guess the following video could teach us something on how to have self control in order to discipline and rule over your own feelings. Enjoy

 

10 things you must give up to move forward

There are many things I feel I need to work on from these 10 points to help myself to move forward in life. Finding the solutions can be a pain yet if I don't do I will never be able to live in the present. Hope you guys out there can learn and find some solutions to it if you are continuously living in the past.

Bagel Styled Donuts

Based on the cooking theme for the best cooking blog which is local delight, I have decided to make donuts by using the bread maker.

However, as my family is getting more health conscious I have decided to make bagel styled donuts as it contains less calories.

Recipe

Ingredient
280g of bread flour
3 tbsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of vegetable oil ( I used olive oil)
180 ml of water
1 tsp of instant yeast

Steps

1. Put all the ingredients to the bread maker and press mode 9
2. After 1 hr, it should end.
3. Next,it is to measure the bread dough on the size of the donuts you want to create.
4. Cover it with a wet cloth for about 40 mins
5. Start to deep fry
6. Cover it with brown sugar or chocolate sauce,

Cooking demo by Ms Theresa Wong from Panasonic for the Singapore Blog Awards 2015.

On 20th June 2015, I attended the cooking demo by Ms Theresa Wong from Panasonic for the Singapore Blog Awards 2015 as jointly organized with omy. Although this year is my second year in attending this cooking demo, I learnt new things. For example, I learnt that the cake mode function of the bread maker could be used to aid in making kaya. Kaya being my favourite comfort food can now be easily done without having me to stand most of the time to keep on stirring the kaya. Besides that, having a powerful hand blender is also important cos it helps to make the kaya smooth.

Here're  some pictures of the process of making kaya using the cake mode of the bread maker

We had a volunteer, Elaine learning how to make kaya as her son loves Kaya.

She did the mixing with the guidance from Theresa.

While when using the cake mode,the stirring of the Kaya is still needed once in a while.It is best to use the plastic spatula to do the stirring.So that you do not scrape off the metal stuff in the baking tin.

Yes, no longer one will need to go out to buy kaya with perservatives if one owns the bread maker.

Next, we looked at learning how to cook the herbal emperor chicken by using the steam function of the microwave oven.

To me, a microwave oven would only consist of the microwave functions. However, this model NN-CS894 consist of the functions like steaming using pure steam, microwave, grilling, defrosting of food and many more.

Key feature of the turbo steam function

One thing that Theresa mentioned that the microwave oven could do pure steam mode instead of using the microwave style of steam mode. All you need to do is to put some water in the tray to enable this pure steam mode to be able to function. Please do not use the recycled water from the tray to use it to cook the food. There will be a notification when the water level is too low and will not be able to steam. So one must top up the water level to allow the steaming function to function again.

The herbal emperor chicken was tender and succulent when eating it. Sorry no pictures can be shown cos the time when i got to taste the chicken it was almost on the finishing end. I hardly could believe that it was cooked by microwave cos since young I never had any meals which was cooked via microwave.

 Most importantly is that having this microwave oven not only allow us to have healthy cooking.It also allow us to do cooking without much hassle, no more dirty kitchen after cooking and the cleaning of this oven is easy.

14 Types of Girlfriends- A just for laugh video on relationships

I like this video cos it is just for laugh and some really do make me laugh like mad.. hope that brightens ur day

Chicken Satay Pizza

This chicken satay pizza is partially done with the help of Panasonic bread maker. I used the bread maker to make the pizza dough.

Thick crust version of the satay pizza 

Thin crust version of the satay pizza


I made the pizza crust by using the mode 12 for pizza dough. As per the recipe in the user manual, I use the following ingredients just that instead of getting milk powder I use low fat Meiji fresh milk.

Recipe for the Chicken Satay Pizza

Ingredients :
1 packet of pan fried chicken satay pizza from ntuc 
pineapple slices
japanese cucumber
onion 
mozarella cheese 

Steps:
1. Use the bread maker to make the pizza dough
2.  Pan fry satay with the sauce
3. Place the pizza dough on the tray for baking if you are using an oven. I used my roasting pan to make the pizza so i heat up the pot to A on small fire then I place the pizza dough.
4. I place the pan fried satay and other ingredients.
5. I baked the pizza from A to C and I got the two lovely pizzas as shown before.

Happy 端午节

Today is  端午节 , a festival which is mostly commonly known to commemorate the death of the poet cum  minster Qu Yuan in Singapore local context. How the rice dumpling came about is that people drops the sticky rice balls into the river in bid to save the body of Qu Yuan from being eaten.

In Singapore. there are many flavours of the rice dumpling. The types that are commonly found would be Bak zhang and nonya  flavour.

Photo courtesy of so shiok.com

photo courtesy from dongyuan.com.sg

 I love the bak zhang the most .... so each year i look forward to eat the bak zhang from my grand auntie. Cos her bak zhang consist of salted egg yolk, chest nut, mushroom and pork belly.
Have fun to learn how to wrap bak zhang today. You may learn it at the following link- http://fatboo.com/2013/07/how-to-wrap-bak-chang-top-10-tips.html

Relationships Wednesdays

Actually before the start of the year I was trying to hope that I am able to blog daily with all different themes on each day. However due to my workload, I had to slow down my pace.

Supposedly every Wednesday is a day I would share about relationship issue.  Today  I would like to share about platonic friendship.

Actually, platonic friendship is possible to occur. For me, it is easier for me to have good guy buddies rather than female good buddies. I have 2 good guy friends whom they knew of each other's existence even though they are of different countries cos I introduced them to each other on one occasion.

I am thankful that these 2 good guy friends are always there for me when I needed a listening ear. Tomorrow is going to celebrate birthday with one of them. So I still think that men and women can still be friends cos men and women just need to have friends of the different gender to offer them the perspectives from the different gender. Just keep it cool on the platonic friendship ! 

Mala Xiang Guo

Recently, I fell in love with this dish called mala xiang guo after my brother in law cooked this dish at my place for the weekly lunch meeting.

What I did was to get all the ingredients which i wanted to cook in the mala paste.

My take for the ingredients for this dish would be sliced celery, lotus root, crab stick , oyster mushroom , prawns , sotong , sliced beef, fish balls and enoki mushroom.

Here's the look of the mala sauce which i got from giant.

 Giant is selling ard $5.50 if i din remember wrongly

What is balanced in my house fridge was  crabstick , enoki mushroom, fishball , oyster mushroom so i did the mala xiang guo with the ingredients .

Here's how it look like

The numbing sensation i got from this mala xiang guo was shiok to the max...have fun cooking this dish at home and dun need to go to food court and eat the expensive dish again.

Steps to prepare this is simple:

1. Wash all the ingredients clean
2. Heat up the pot with a bit of oil and saute the garlic till fragrant
3. Add 1 packet of the sauce in to fry
4. Add the ingredients in
5. Let it cook for a while
6. Ready to serve with white rice.

In need of a part time job ?

Part time job is a job where one works less than 35 hours a week as according to the Ministry of manpower's website. So what kind of part time jobs in Singapore could be seen on job portals Singapore? It could be a part time admin, f&b, cashier, distributors for flyers and many more others. Stroff.com is specializing in Part-time jobs Singapore is one of the better job portals in Singapore that you could use to aid yourself in finding a part time job. As usual, there are many various reasons that one would look for a part time job. So which is your favourite way to find your part time job?  For me, it was through a referral in the past when I was a teenager.

Here's the link to the manpower website to help you know more about the employee's right as a part-time worker:

 http://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/part-time-employment/who-is-a-part-time-worker.

Part-time jobs are so common for students who are in the college, polytechnics, and university levels. It is nothing more than earning an extra keep for themselves or earning their allowances.

Here're some things to look out for when looking for a part- time job as a student:

•  Ability to slot your working hours into your daily schedule after school
• Near home if you are still schooling till late in the evenings
•  Ample rest so that you would not neglect your school work
• Able to learn new things
• Most importantly, know your employee rights from the MOM's website before starting work.

           

·                

Part time jobs for students should not only be to earn allowance only but also to gain working experience as well as to understand how your parents feel when they are working.

For me, I started working part-time at the age of fourteen at my father's shop as a cashier or crew.  It was like burning my weekends away beside finishing my CCA in school and rushing to finish my homework before going to help out at the shop. It has helped me to be a better planner for my finances and time management.

 Even though I was working in my father's shop, I was not given any privileges. I was supposed to work just like any another staff of his. Reporting to work on time was one main question that I have to consider as I have to estimate the amount of travelling time that I require for travelling to his shop. Next, I have to manage the homework that I have yet to complete. So what I did was to have a plan that was able to fit into the duty roster that where I can work. Upon having discussion with my supervisor, my weekend schedule was like from after  4pm onwards till late like 11pm for Saturdays and Sunday mornings till around 5pm. With this kind of schedule not only was I able to complete my homework, I was able to have ample rest before school starts on Monday.

So remember to choose a part time job which suits your personality and capability then you will not find it tiring when struggling with schoolwork and the part time. You will then be able to enjoy and excel in the job.

Introducing one of my weekly routine for skin care

Just to share with you people out there, my skin type is those that is of combination skin type.

For me, my combination skin type is outer surface seems dry but underneath the skin is those that is of the oily skin type. This means that I would always have to unclog my pores quite regularly else blackheads and white heads would be popping every now and then.

I loved to use the face lift mask from Nuskin to help me to get rid of the white heads and black heads weekly. 

Me doing my unclogging the pores session( paiseh on the ugly me)

There is a technique to lift up the so called mask sheet in order not to cause ur skin to sag, you have to lift it up in the upwards direction or else the skin will sag. This goes to using any other brands of paper mask.

First loot from Great Singapore Sale 2015

Today I finally succumbed to shopping during the Great Singapore Sale 'cos my favourite pair of shoes almost gave way.  So I shopped around vivocity and managed to get a nice pair of racy red of shoes from mphosis.

Is it nice?  This is my first pair of racy red shoes after so long....thinking of what to match to dress up with this tomorrow....Anyway it is really worth it during GSS cos it is only about $21.

Internships in Singapore - What is it all about?

Talking about internships, it reminds me of the movie “The Internship” which was filmed at Google.  We are currently in an internship frenzy period for university and polytechnic students in Singapore. I remember that during this time each year, I would pause to ask myself if I need to start to look for my internship jobs. This time is also a good time for me to get part time jobs singapore opportunities for my summer vacation.

Here’s a picture of “The Internship” movie in case you have forgotten.

So what is an internship all about to you? Is it just something that you look forward to during the poly or university days? Or is it something that you dread ‘cos you have to find your own internship jobs?

For me, I feel that taking up a singapore internship that is related to your course of study is important as it will help you to define your career path to a certain extent. During my poly days, my internship in an engineering firm was not only related to my studies, but I also really worked on a project for the company’s alarm system. I am thankful that my internship was not like that of some of my other friends who did irrelevant jobs like telemarketing in an insurance company.

Having said that, the stress you have to go through to find an internship on your own is frightening enough when you do not know how to write your own resume and how to contact the ideal company which you wish to work for. Before I was being sent out for my internship by my lecturers in polytechnic, I was thinking of how to get the job that I wanted to try out instead of getting the one that was being assigned to me by my lecturers ‘cos I heard some of my friends saying that those that find their own internships get better pay.

Fret no more, I chanced upon this website called “Stroff.com” which is an internship portal for students to find their internship and for some fresh graduates who aims to try something else before setting down for their life long career. At Stroff.com, you will be able to find intern jobs that are related to your course of study. It also provides really good career guidance tips for people like us who are still studying or who have just graduated.

Here’s some of the preferred internship categories when you sign up with them:-

I registered myself in just to try if the site is user friendly. It is pretty user friendly ‘cos it uses larger fonts. Actually, I found that the job descriptions are clearer than some of those posted in jobsdb.com.

Part time jobs for students are usually the easiest to find. Perhaps next time, you might want to try out Stroff.com first before heading down to the recruitment agencies.

 To sign up, you just need to register your email with them which can be done within 2 minutes. Most importantly is that you do not have to go through the gruelling process to cold call prospective employers and companies to try to land your internship jobs.

Have fun in your internship singapore experiences, you people out there!!!

What are the factors that causes the hair not to be smooth?

Usually fretting on how to get good hair days? I do often get bad hair days due to that I have a lot of hair that looks like a bomb even though the natural curls are nice.
 
So what are the factors that causes the hair not to be smooth ?

• Weather- are you surprised to see that weather is one of the factors?

 

• Smoothing treatments- too much of it causes the hair to be become brittle.
• Hormonal changes
• Using the wrong kind of shampoo
• Brushing your hair when it is wet
• Daily use of hair dryer or flat iron

So how to counter these nasty factors?

• Prepare to shower your hair with lots of conditioner but remember just apply to roots and not the scalp
• Use ion blow dryer
• Straighten hair when it is wet
• Do a hair mask once a week - I use the DIY Hair Spa Steamer Nourishing Hair Care Cap from Qoo10.sg , it works pretty well
• Use sulphate free formulas to wash your hair.

 

Cheese baked spiced pork cube udon

Today  I decided to cook one of my comfort dish to ease of my craving for the spiced pork cubes.

This dish could be done within half an hour. Nothing much fanciful but rather it can be done for just a single person without much fuss.

Ingredients
1 packet of udon ( Ntuc brand)
1 can of spiced pork cubes ( Narcissus brand)
2 slices of cheese ( Ntuc brand)
1 egg

Steps
 1. Open the packet of udon and rinse it
 2. Heat up the wok and put some oil in it
 3, Pour in the spiced pork cubes
4. Pour in the udon
5. Pour in the beaten egg
6. Put in 2 slices of cheese and cover the noodles
7. Wait for about 15 mins
8. Ready to serve.

Review of Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck

Braised duck is traditionally a dish that is cooked via the teochew’s style of cooking.  It is formally known as 卤味 which is known as one of the braised varieties. It is a dish where one could spend up to hours in the kitchen from the plucking of the feathers to the braising of the duck.

When I cooked this dish myself, I would prefer that the braise sauce to be more on the sweet side as my family prefers it to be sweet. Having said that, this is the first time I have the opportunity to review on Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck to compare the difference between my own homecooked and outside one as I seldom consume braised duck out of homecooked food.

Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck’s braise sauce is slightly more salty as compared to my homecooked one. Having said that, there are many differences in individual’s preferences in the taste bud. The meat gives a meaty feel when upon the first bite. I loved to put the braise sauce on my rice and mix it with his chilli sauce which is sedap aka delicious.

Learning from the stall owner, Mr Ong that the Teochew would either braised it on the sweet or the salty side. It is not a definition that the duck has to braise it on the sweet side only. He said that he had learned his recipe from his grandmother just like me learning from my mom who has learnt from my grandmother. However, I found that his braised duck is slightly more fragrant than mine when I cooked. I wonder what ingredient did he add in.

He actually recommend me to try a lot of his other dishes like the duck noodles, duck kway chup, braised pig trotters, pig tail with peanuts ,another of my favourite which is the preserved vegetables and many more others the next time round when I visit his stall.

Duck noodles

Duck Leg Kway Tiao 

My favourite-perserved vegetables 

Braised peanuts with pig tail

I was still amazed by his braised duck ..so the only thing to pack back was his braised duck for my parents to taste. My parents were like ‘hmm..this braised duck is not too bad’ after all I reheated the braised duck the next day… the duck meat was not too stiff and difficult to bite.

Before I forget, Mr Ong said how to know if the braised duck is nice to eat is based on 2 factors. The two factors are there could not be a funny kind of smell on the duck and there should not be any msg in the cooking of the braised duck.

 There goes another dish for the traditional food which is being struck off my list to learn for cooking. If you are keen to bring your old folks to try out the traditional braised duck , you might want to bring them to blk 504 bishan street 11 to try out Mr Ong’s Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck from 2^nd of May onwards.

My Korea Trip ( 5/3/15 - 10/3/15) - Part 1

As this is my first time going to korea, I got very excited for this trip as it was the winter season. Finally, I am able to experience winter.

I arrived at Korea at around 3.15pm on the 5.3.15. I nearly lost my luggage on that very day cos the queue at the customs was pretty long. Good thing that my luggage bag is bright in colour, so managed to go to the lost & found section to get back my luggage bag.

My friends and I decided to take the subway to the hostel cos the cab will take more than an hour to arrive at the hostel that we booked.

On the subway to the hostel 

Here's a picture of relief goods storage in the subway...dunno what is it for ...

Upon arriving, we then realized that there are a lot of staircases to climb and no lift so have to carry up the luggage like this to go to the hostel.

Photo courtesy by joycelyn quek

 
So we ended up for the first night for some thing cheap for the dinner after feeling tired. As we planned for an early trip to go out the next morning , to visit a lot of places.

DIY Scalp Massage for Healthy Strong Hair! ♥ (Stimulates Growth

I thought this is a good video to share on how to get healthy strong hair. Hope that helps !

Something for personal development

 

I think this is something that we all must learn in order to pick ourselves up from failures and depression.

 

Hope you will be able to benefit this quote . Enjoy the weekend.