Cuisine de la Tiff!

Finally I have uploaded these images from my phone! Ever since I moved to London, I have taken a great interest in cooking. Mostly because everything here is so expensive, sometimes it's just cheaper to cook at home. After a while, I realized I can recreate some of the stuff that I really love from back home just by following some really awesome receipes online. So since I've been back from Taiwan, I have had some down time so I have been cooking up a storm! Jez, as my guinea pig...has gained an astonishing 7kg from my food...I do take that as a compliment.

So I try to take pictures of the dishes I have made. I'm not really good at photography so I wish the images would turn out better but...I did my best with my little Sony Ericsson phone..

I don't really know the exact measurement to anything, only the ingredients...which is probably my downfall for not able to bake to save my life cuz you'd have to measure everything...i think most time in Asian cuisine, it's all eye-balling.

Vietnamese summer rolls



















It was a really hot day, surpringly in London, I had these Vietnamese rice wrapper lying around so I looked up for some recipes and I didn't realize it was that simple! I made two types: Summer chicken rolls and citrus shrimp rolls.

Ingredient (chicken):

Vietnamese rice wrapper x 1 pack

chicken breasts x 2
small cucumber x 1
carrot x 1
coriander
Japanese sesame dipping sauce x 2 table spoon
dash of white pepper
dash of salt

Shrimp roll:
Sainsbury's cooked shrimp x 1 box
lime x 2
coriander
carrot + cucumber (same amount as the chicken)
dash of salt
suger x tsp

Instructions (and i'll do my best..)

It's best to do all the fillings first because you can refrigerate it and use it later if you like. Boil the chicken breasts then cool it down with cold water, slice it to thin strips then set it aside. Boil the shrimps if you like but it comes cooked and you only need to heat it up in hot water for about 10 - 20 seconds. Julienne the cucumber and carrot, in two different bowls, soak the cut veggies in salt water for ten minutes then wash it with tap water. This way will preserve the crunchiness of the vegetables.

Mix the chicken strips with the Japanese sesame dressing, also know as Shabu Shabu dipping sauce. I use it cuz I really like the sesame flavor and I was too lazy to make it from scratch and I just happen to have that in my cupboard. It is normally used in Shabu Shabu, a Japanese hot pot cuisine where you cook the meat in stock then dip in the sauce. Do all the seasoning then set it aside. Do the same with the shrimps but not with Shabu Shabu sauce but with the lime sauce.

Now you prepare the rice wrappers.

The rice wrappers are hard so you'd have to soften it by using warm water. It only take about 10 seconds for the wrap to be soften so don't leave it on it's own, do one wrap at a time. Once the wrapper is soft, take it out and lightly dry it with a towel or paper towel. Then the easiest part: Use whatever fillings you like, with some veggies, some coriander, then wrap it out eggroll style. Then cut it in half and voila!

Wow...my first actually food description...this is a lot of work! I'll post the rest of the pics and I'll go through them another day...hee hee