Bad days

Ive been having a crappy week or two after i got back from Taiping. 1st i fell sick and then i had alot of work to do which really brought me down... although im taking food and culture this sem there isnt a single subject im taking that makes me excited. Everything seems like such a drag.
Plus i sort of missed doing nothing in Taiping.


Taiping really was incredible. 80% of the people i spoke to before i left told me it would be miserable, but i kept my mind open and i enjoyed it. The fact that we went there to eat just made me indulge in everything i could see. I discovered a new found liking for Teh Tarik with fresh milk and tiny spherical sweets made of jaggery and coconut! Who knew the Sri Lankan appam could be combined with sweetened coconut shaving or crushed peanuts to be ultimately DELICIOUS! But what i liked most of all about the trip was the fact that there was no itinerary and we did what ever we felt like doing whenever.

Having gotten back from Taiping i came to a horrible realization a week later; the pictures i had taken for my assignment were near unusable. I dont understand why i am so horrible at taking photographs. I have a camera that supposedly is good enough but i just have no eye for things beautiful so i just cant hold a camera straight it my hand. I am so upset i seriously feel like crying. Seeing everyone else's fancy DLSR pictures does not make it any better. I have half the mind to take a bus back to Taiping to take more PROPER pictures. EVER since that dreaded day i have been in such a weird mood. I have done everything i could possibly think of to ignore the fact that ive had work to do. Sometimes i dont think i understand myself.

I think i really miss home these days. I just wish i could get away from here for a while; just forget all the work i have to do, all the responsibilities.. sigh.

Mango Burger

I've seen this burger at Nandos often but ive never thought of trying it out. If i find something i like i have the tendency to keep going back to eat the same thing. However with all the masterchef I've been watching, i was suddenly feeling very adventurous and i decided to try the burger out.
So the burger really is a chicken breast with mango on top. Truthfully the whole thing was exciting to eat! Im not a big fan of mixing sweet and spicy but that burger really was good! I was genuinely surprised so next time you are in Nandos TRY IT! u must!

Kid in a candy store

When i see new things at the grocery store i get super excited. This can go for a new cut of meat or even a new kind of pasta (The day i saw lamb shanks, i was happy for 2 days which is quite a big thing for me :)

So my dads alot like me, when he sees something new and exciting at the grocery store he has to buy it. Now you see i live in Oman and you dont get alot of exotic products or produce, so when my dad brought home these gorgeous vacuum packed gourmet mussels. Look at them!!!!! i cant get over how beautiful they are!
Anyway i didnt really know what to do with it because i didnt have the patience to leave them till i had a recipe that called for them. So i just made a salad

If you are in Oman you have to have to have to buy these!! They even have clams!!! Omg they are so good! I made paella with the same mussels and clams earlier this year and then i even made clam pizza with hooters sauce haha... I can't get over them!

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE ...CAKE

The first time i made a cheesecake i didn't know what cheesecake was. I had never eaten a cheesecake or even seen one so when the recipe asked for 800g of cream cheese i thought i had written it down wrong. So i stupidly used a lot less. I guess the problem was the recipe was from a book that didnt have any pictures. It ended up being a biscuit :S it was rather embarrassing later when i saw the real cheesecake.

My 2nd attempt at a cheesecake really couldn't be counted. It was a no bake cheesecake that 2 of my friends and i made together. At least I finally knew what a cheesecake looked like. Ever since then i have been on the constant rampage to find and eat cheesecakes. I had never tried to make a cheesecake though;because its so complicated. It was like lasagna; loved to eat it just too complicated to make.

Later my friend Nuzha wanted to make cheesecake a few years ago, so we decided to get together and make a very basic baked cheesecake. Sadly it cracked right in the middle... a big gaping hole so we filled it in with a lot of betty crockers frosting. Everyone at home loved it, they just dint know what a failure it was. Ive made the same cheesecake a few times after and Ive continuously had problems with it. It would either crack as soon as i took it out of the oven or just collapse. It didnt't really have to look perfect for my brother. He would demolish it either way.

SO FINALLY one fine day in September 2010 i decided to attempt to make a proper cheesecake! I did tonnes of research on the proper way it had to be done and turns out the biggest mistake i was making was taking the cake right out of the oven and placing it on the counter. I thought that was what people did normally??!Im always impatient to ice a cake once im done baking it. So i would take the cake straight of the oven and place it on an exceptionally cold counter assuming that it would help cool down the cake faster.




I wasn't even supposed to open the door during the process of baking as it would reduce the baking temperature! What i apparently had to do was switch off the oven once it was done baking and leave the cake inside the oven so that it would cool to room temperature after which i could take the cake out! Who knew....




I know it isnt the most beautiful thing on earth but there is no way to describe how excited i was when i saw this. I was on top of the world!!!

:D:D:D:D:D:D

Homemade frapps and mini cakes

Lamb lovers

I love lamb.. (thri donot read this)

i love that it has a natural succulence unlike chicken or turkey where you have to inject flavor into it. The slow cooked lamb was the highlight of the meal. All i did was rub a shoulder of lamb with salt and pepper with some olive oil and crushed garlic. I then added a whole load more of unpeeled garlic and a bunch of fresh fennel. I then placed it in a baking dish covered it with foil and put it in the oven for 4 hours.
When i took it out the meat was falling off the bone.. ~heaven~ The unpeeled garlic was all mushy with oozing garlic paste :D sigh if food could be sexy. THAT was sexy

The rest of the meal included some super simple dishes such as spinach and beef cannelloni that i've made one too many times and this EXTREMELY simple vegetable dish. Seriously this is the most easy recipe ever! And what was even more awesome was that it was bloody good! I couldnt come up with any good vege recipes so i took this recipe off the net. Since then i have made it thrice and i love how easy it is to make.
You HAVE to try it! use fresh vegetables instead though

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Campbells-Swiss-Vegetable-Casserole/Detail.aspx

The vegetables were baked in cream, cheese and condensed soup and yes it was rich and fabulous! :D

we all have to eat

I cant wait to go back home so i can cook in peace in my kitchen with my ingredients! counting down the days..
Summer this year, Kevin was in Oman. so i had this dinner thing for his family and duvs (sadly he was back in Australia). I wanted to make a full menu and after hours of contemplation i finally decided on the menu. I had seen Jamie Oliver make this slow cooked lamb on Tv and i wanted to try it out. Boys love their meat so its was the perfect opportunity. I know most of your'll might think slow cooked lamb is the easiest thing in the world and yes it is, but i decided to put it on the blog because i turned out so beautifully and it tasted divine!
before i continue on however i must apologize for my horrible photo taking skills. I do promise ill pay more attention to my photographs from now on. :)

Kevin at dinner (this picture was originally taken as kavin's attempt to make davyn jealous but he never saw it. Oh well :) now i hope he will)

So for appetizers decided to make something very simple. Smoked salmon with chili feta and a cold pea soup. sadly i sort of ran out of time making the appetizers and i couldnt cut out the circles of salmon as i had initially planed so it ended up looking like this below

It tasted good and yes it didnt look so bad but oh well time management problems :S