600th mega cooking post

Wow.....I can't believe this is my 600th post. I really need to get a life! haha I thought I'd celebrate my 600th post by doing a consolidated post of all the yummy things I've been cooking.

Swedish Meatballs

Swedish meatballs

I forgot to take a photo of the final product, but these were really yummy for a first attempt. You're supposed to shallow fry these meatballs, but I tried to reduce the amount of oil/butter by using a non-stick pan. So they didn't turn out as dry and crunchy as the traditional swedish meatballs, but they were really good nonetheless.

Chicken and mushroom pastry

Chicken and mushroom pastry with potato gems

Innards

I haven't made this in almost 2 years. The last time I made this was during a dinner party where we ended up watching the secretary and freaking everyone out. I marinate the chicken and quickly pan fry the chicken to seal in the juices. The mushrooms are sauteed and mixed with cream cheese and cream plus a whole heap of other spices. This is then wrapped in puff pastry and baked until golden brown. I then drench the whole thing in a light cheese sauce. Sooooo good!

High Tea

I have my mother's mentality of "Why go out and pay for something, when you can make the same thing, only better, cheaper and in bigger quantities??". So when my friend mentioned that we should do high tea, I offered to whip up a high tea pigging out session.

Finger sandwiches

I made 3 types of finger sandwiches. Smoked salmon with cream cheese and cucumber, cucumber and mayo, and good old creamy egg salad sandwich with extra pepper. I think the egg sandwich was the winner.

Crab dip on toasties and pigs in a blanket

The pigs in a blanket isn't something you would normally find at a high tea, but it was something I haven't made for awhile and was seriously craving. The crab dip was a recipe I got off The Food Pornographer and it was absolutely delicious! I wish I managed to get my hands on some fresh crab meat instead of canned crab meat, it would've been sooooooo much nicer!

What are these golden orbs?

I found a fantastic recipe to make scones, and what high tea would be complete with scones? This only took me a few minutes to make and they turned out absolutely perfect. And what needs to go with fresh warm fluffy scones?

Hand whipped cream

So on top of hand whipped cream, you need strawberry jam. Luckily, I still had some strawberry jam from the last batch I made.

Put home made chunky strawberry jam on the fresh hot scones...

... slather with whipped cream. Consume.

OH. MY. GOD. This was utterly orgasmic! The scones were hot and fluffy, the strawberry jam and thick cream was the perfect end to the high tea.

Lasagne

Another dish I haven't made in a long long time. This lasagne had a thick rich meaty sauce layered between sheets of pasta with white sauce, all topped with cheese.

How good does that look?

Big Breakfast

I can think of no better way to start the weekend when you've got a hangover, than with a big breakfast. Wait, I can. Someone ELSE making you the big breakfast. But then you can't pig out without making a fool of yourself. The only way will be to cook it yourself.

Now THAT is a big breakfast

Bacon, eggs, sausages, baked beans, mushrooms and potato gems. I forgot to buy hash browns, so the potato gems will have to do. This was the perfect way to wake up in the morning.

Eggy closeup

Pizza

I really gotta make my own pizza base one day. But the cool weather makes it hard for any dough to rise properly. So I bought some "Bazaar" pizza bases to make these pizzas.


Rich tomatoey base, topped with ham, onions, sundried tomato and loads of cheese. I then sprinkled some oregano ontop before baking it until the cheese went a nice golden brown.

Chunky steake and mushroom pie

In this cold cold weather, one of the most comforting things you can have is a lovely hearty pie. As much as I love my junk pies with the unknown meat gravy, I thought I might try my healthier version with chunky steak and mushrooms.

Chunky steak and mushroom pie with potato gems

Innards

I don't know how other pies get their filling so dark, I think it could be the stock they use or something. Even though it doesn't look like your typical pie filling, it definitely tasted like it.

Indonesian Oxtail soup

I first had this when I was in Singapore and I couldn't believe how flavoursome it was. I search the net for a recipe, and luckily, Lilia posted a comment on my post with a recipe! I followed the recipe and although it didn't taste exactly the same as what I had in Singapore (And I think thats cos I didn't put any msg in!), it was still delicious. This is rich, yet light. Almost like a really good Pho stock.


Chicken burger with a twist

I didn't exactly cook this, my friend did, but I did help assemble my serve!


Grilled chicken breast with avocado and sundried tomato burger.

Hokkien Fried Rice

This was a dish I tried about 15 years ago, and I loved it so much, I made my parents put it on our restaurant menu. When I cook this, I try to make it extra extra saucy. I love my sauce, especially if its on Hokkien fried rice.


The fried rice simply stir fried with egg and peas. The topping was a combination of diced chicken, prawns, mushrooms and asparagus. The sauce was made from the rehydrated mushroom water, chicken broth, oyster sauce, soya sauce and pepper. It doesn't look like a lot of sauce, but what I did was I dug a well in the centre of the rice before pouring a whole heap of sauce onto it.

That's a lot of cooking, but it was done over quite a few weeks, so don't think I ate all of that on one weekend! I've just been too lazy to post, but being the 600th post, I had to make a bit of an effort! Lets see what I can rack up for the 700th post?