chocolate chip cookies

i was thinking of baking something last night with the kids and found this really good chocolate chip cookies recipe from the internet.  and luckily, i had all the ingredients required in my pantry!  yeah! i’m obsessed with cc cookies, they are always the perfect cookies!
ingredients:

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (120 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) (115 grams) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2-inch (1cm) pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (200 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup(130 grams) walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped

preheat oven to 150C

beat the sugar, brown sugar and butter together until
creamy



beat in the egg, vanilla extract and mix until combined

 
 

sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.





add in chocolate chips



then nuts



bake for about 20 mins in the oven




the cookies have the wonderful crispy outside

chewy inside combo going on!!  however, it is a little
bit too sweet for the kids, i will have to reduce the
amount of sugar next time.






yum yum yum!



po toi o fishing village

drove all the way to po toi o for some fresh and delicious seafood today, the small fishing village is located at the sourthern end of the clearwater bay. it's nice to get away from the city on weekend, the kids were all excited as we arrived, i guess it's somewhere interesting and different for them.  there're only 2 seafood restaurants in the village, and we took our friend's recommendation to try out Fat Kee and it was not bad at all.  compared to the seafood restaurants in sai kung, here's more reasonable.  the kids enjoyed watching the crabs, shrimps and other seafoods moving in the tank.  after the lunch, we took a little walk around the village. it was quite an enjoyable lunch today!

 

  

sushi night

decided to make sushi for dinner last night.  the last time i made sushi was about 12 years ago when i was working as a part-time sushi chef assistant in canada.  sometimes i feel going out to a japanese restaurant to enjoy sushi can be pretty expensive. instead, you can make your favorite sushi at home for a fraction of the cost of a restaurant. only simple equipments are needed to purchase, a rolling mat and a sharp edge knife. fresh ingredients are highly important to making delicious sushi. for the ingredients last night, i prepared nori sheets, sushi rice, sushi vinegar, avocado, crab meats and fresh fish like salmon and scallops. 

ian enjoyed mixing the sushi rice

fresh avocado for the california roll’s filling

put a sheet of nori on the rolling mat and 

cover in evenly with a layer of rice

for the roll, i used crab meats,

eggs, mayonnaise and avocado

lift up the end of the rolling mat, fold it over 

and press down softly as you turn and create 

the sushi roll, once rolled it, slice it into pieces

and enjoy!

my kids love california rolls, we always order 

this when we’re out in a restaurant

papa enjoyed the aburi (partially grilled topside) salmon

sushi the most!

burning the scallops with a burner is fun!

home-made sushi platter for papa

it was quite a lot of work again, but really happy

to see my family enjoyed the meal!

indonesian home cooking

my favorite indonesian dish is most certainly satay, my maid told me that indonesian satay tend to taste sweeter because of the use of kecap manis.  anyway, it is my first attempt to make indonesian grill satay at home.  you can purchase a ready made satay sauce but we decided to make our own today.  here's what we need for the home-made peanut sauce: 

1 cup crunchy peanut (use a pressure cooker), or peanut butter
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
2 cloves shallot
1 tsp chilli paste
ground cumin
ground corriander seeds

1/2 tsp sesame oil
palm sugar
salt and pepper

water, 1/4 cup

 

mix everything well in a pot, remove from 
heat and blend with an electric mixer, add 
freshly squeezed lemon, grated lemon zest, 
freshly chopped corrriander, thinkly sliced
shallot and a bit of ABC kecap manis

my maid is making indonesian fried rice

yummy!!

dipped them into the sauce n dig in,
they are perfect with the fried rice!!

tasty beef skewers!

tender pork skewers

i know it's strange, but i just couldn't help to buy these goose livers when doing the shopping....

it sounds complicated and a quite a lot of work, eh? but trust me, it totally worth it.

peanut butter cookies with hazelnuts

it was by mom's request that i made these cookies today, i gave the peanut butter cookies recipe a twist by using this dark chocolate peanut butter and add extra hazelnut!  here's the recipe to share...

ingredients:

50g unsalted butter

40g caster sugar

25g egg white

50g dark chocolate peanut butter

80g flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

preheat oven at 170C

dark chocolate dream peanut butter!! 

yummy!

to get start, first bake the hazelnuts in the oven for about 10 mins

beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric blender

until creamy, then slowly add in the egg white, beat well.

then put in the chocolate peanut butter into the mixture 

and keep mixing until fluffy

 

add the sifted flour and baking soda into the 

mixtureand blend with a spatula until combined

lastly stir in hazelnuts, drop by teaspoon onto

the cookie sheet and bake for about 20 mins, 

do not over bake. 

ready to put into the oven!

 

it's great to see the outcome of these cookies and hear papa said 

that they are tasty!