Chocolate chips cookies with pistachios and almonds

It's been a long long time since I last posted. Have been really really busy and went through episodes of soul searching and emotional clean up. So here I am, back to cooking and photo shooting. The cookies are made using a recipe I adapted from a cookbook. Will post the recipe soon. More pictures coming up soon as I'm cooking up many dishes to shoot today. Finally decided to market my food photography services in a bigger way....so watch me!

Angel hair pasta with minced pork, swiss brown mushrooms in spicy tomato sauce

Had the spur-of-the-moment urge to cook something to eat and shoot while I was doing some grocery shopping on Wednesday. Nowadays when I cook, I think whether the dish will taste and also look good in pictures, so I will always bear that in mind when I shop for ingredients.

Here's a simple and easy pasta that I cooked for lunch yesterday (Thursday June 14, 2007) that can be ready in about 30 mins (including preparation, but not including picture taking! I only had the luxury of 30 mins before I had to quickly eat and rush for an interpreting assignment).

If you don't like pork (or can't eat it due to religious reasons), you can substitute with minced lamb, beef, or even prawns, seafood and sliced sausages!

Ingredients:

Angel hair pasta enough for 2 persons (or you can use linguine, penne or other types of pasta instead)

10 pieces of baby swiss brown mushrooms (the small ones are firmer), sliced thinly

100 g of minced pork (marinated with pinch of salt)

1 medium onion (thinly chopped)

4 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)

1/2 can of chopped tomatoes (Italian Roma tomatoes)

3 sprigs of Italian parsley (coarsely chopped)

3 tablespoon of cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil

salt and organic cane sugar to taste

1/2 teaspoon of dried chili flakes

pinch of dried thyme

4 pieces of bay leaves

shaved parmesan cheese

Procedure:

1. Heat olive oil in a deep pan, put in garlic and onion and fry for about one minute, add thyme and bay leaves, chili flakes then minced pork. Fry for another 2 minutes and add the mushrooms. Leave for 2 minutes before adding the chopped tomatoes.

2. Leave to simmer using low heat for about 10 mins or when the sauce is reduced.

3. While waiting for the sauce to be ready, boil water in a pot for the pasta. Put in the pasta after the water has boiled and add a pinch of salt to the boiling water. The pasta should be ready in about 3 - 5 mins (al dente). Scoop out the pasta and pour a little olive oil over them so that they wont stick together.

4. Check on the sauce, add the chopped Italian parsley and put in the salt and sugar to taste. Pour the sauce over the pasta on a plate and serve immediately with remaining chopped Italian parsley and shaved parmesan cheese.

Note: I learned this from a friend: Never used canned tomato sauce or puree to cook tomato-based pasta! You can either use canned chopped Roma tomatoes (long, oval shape), canned whole peeled Roma tomatoes or canned cherry tomatoes. Well you can always make it fresh but I find that it's too expensve (fresh Roma tomatoes cost a bomb!) and troublesome. I find that the best results come from using chopped tomatoes and it's more convenient too (already chopped, if you use whole peeled tomatoes, you have to mash them up in the pan).

Panfried Rock lobster with butter, served with baby desiree potatoes in lemon juice and italian parsley

Finally back to posting after a long silence. Been travelling in Shanghai and Taiwan for a conference interpreting assignment and have been dead busy after I got back on May 2. I did not really have the mood to cook after I got back from Taiwan.

Anyway, my friend/interpreter Sam bought some rock lobster meat for me from Sabah (East Malaysia), and I managed to squeeze time to cook them amidst my busy schedule, as he and I are flying to Singapore this coming Monday, May 21, for another conference interpreting assignment in Singapore (can't wait to try the chili crabs!).


Mom cooked two other veggie dishes and I also made the Asian marinated beef steak salad that I last posted before this post. The Asian marinated beef steak salad is a fool-proof dish as it never fails even though I've made it for 3 times. And the beauty is that you can always adjust to your taste bud.


Recipe for pan-fried rock lobster meat (also known as balmain bug in Australia) with butter, served with baby desiree potatoes in lemon juice and italian parsley


Ingredients:

About 10 pieces of shelled rock lobster meat
5 baby desiree potatoes (or any waxy potatoes), boiled, peeled and cut into halves
2 stalks of italian parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
Shredded lemon peel (1 tsp)
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 tsp of honey

Procedure:

1. For the rock lobster, marinate the rock lobster meat with a little salt and gound black pepper. Pour away any access water and pan fry with about 50g of butter. Fry till rock lobster meat becomes brown and dish out.
2. Put the halved boiled and peeled baby potatoes into the same pan, add garlic and chopped italian parsley and lemon peel. Put in pinch of salt, groud black pepper to taste, and honey. Fry till brown and dish out to serve with the rock lobster meat.


Here's the unorganized version of the Asian marinated beef steak salad recipe:

1. Marinate the steak with finely chopped ginger, 1 tbspoon of soy sauce, 1 tbspoon of peanut oil and freshly ground black pepper for about 30 mins.

2. While waiting, toast a handful of pistachios (deshelled) in a pan on the stove for about 5 – 8 mins. Leave to cool and chop the pistachios into smaller pieces. You can also use roasted almonds (roast in the oven) but I find that pistachios taste better.

3. For the dressing, you need 3 cloves of chopped garlic, juice from one lime, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of organic cane sugar.

4. Pan fry the steak on both sides for about 5 mins on each side (medium rare), well done about 8 mins I think on each side. Pour all the marinate into the pan when its almost done. Dish out the steak, leave to cool, and slice thinly.

5. Then pour in about 2 tbsp of peanut oil, fry the garlic and pour in the soy sauce and cane sugar into the juices of the steak in the pan. Then add in the lime juice. If you like it hot, you can put in chopped red chilies.

6. For the salad, you need 2 cups of watercress leaves, 2 stalks of coriander leaves, thinly sliced onion rings and chopped cherry tomatoes if you like. Toss the salad dressing in the pan with the leaves, onion rings, tomatoes and the thinly sliced steak. Sprinkle with the pistachios and enjoy!

Additional recipe: Angel hair pasta with garlic, chili flakes, button mushroom, white wine and king prawns and toasted pine nuts. (picture can be seen in the previous post, but without king prawns)

Ingredients:

Angel hair pasta enough to serve for 4 persons
1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts (toast them lightly in a pan on the stove)
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
10 medium white button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon of dried chili flakes
one bunch of italian parsley, about 5 - 8 sprigs, chopped
12 king prawns, cleaned, shelled and deveined
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of dry white wine (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste shredded parmesan cheese

Procedure:

1. Boil pasta in water until tenderly cooked, usually takes about 10 - 15 minutes for angel hair pasta. Dish them out when done.

2. Fry the olive oil with garlic and chili flakes, put in the sliced mushroom then followed by the white wine and prawns. Sautee for about 8 - 10 minutes and put in the pasta, fry for another 2 or 3 minutes until evenly mixed.

3. Put in the chopped italian parsley, dish out the ready pasta and sprinkle with the toasted pine nuts, parmesan cheese and fresh chopped italian parsley (for garnishing) before serving and enjoy!

April 2, 2007 lunch and dinner

I was in the mood to cook and shoot, since my folks were out of town, made my job a lot easier hehe! Didn't have time to post though, as I was really busy throughout the week. I made marinated steak, water cress and coriander salad with asian dressing, topped with toasted pistachios for lunch; and for dinner, I invited my friends, MaeV and Sam over for a quick one. I started cooking only at 7.45 pm and because I was so hungry, managed to get it done real fast in 45 minutes! I cooked garlic, button mushrooms, Italian parsley and pine nuts angel hair pasta; and avocado, tomato, watercress salad topped with balsamic vinaigrette and toasted pistachios.

I'm still very busy now, preparing for my medical meeting interpreting in Shanghai and Taipei, so I'm just going to post the pictures now and hope to come up with the recipes later. The recipe for the marinated steak salad was inspired by a picture that I saw on someone else's blog, but modified it a little to suit my taste.

I made the marinated steak salad again yesterday (April 7, 2007) for lunch, using the leftover ingredients from Monday. The second attempt had chopped cherry tomatoes sprinkled on top too...

Marinated steak, water cress and coriander salad with asian dressing, topped with toasted pistachios


Marinated steak, water cress and coriander salad with asian dressing, topped with toasted pistachios


Garlic, button mushrooms, Italian parsley and pine nuts angel hair pasta

Avocado, tomato, watercress salad topped with balsamic vinaigrette and toasted pistachios



Second attempt of marinated steak, water cress and coriander salad with asian dressing, topped with toasted pistachios and chopped cherry tomatoes

Curries and pastes - second batch of food packaging photos

Here are the second batches of the curries and pastes food packaging photos, shot last Sunday, March 25, 2007. I was recovering from a horrible flu and I guess was not at my peak form to shoot good photos. The photos turned out to be more suitable for magazine shots instead, albeit a bit dark.

There were instant pastes for nasi lemak sambal, prawn mee, chicken curry, fish curry, and curry laksa. As usual, my cousin who needed the service cooked and styled everything, while I just shot the photos. Took a longer time to shoot and convert the pictures as I was very tired and there were more products.



Curry Chicken


Nasi Lemak


Prawn mee


Curry laksa

Breakfast: Bacon & fried eggs, roasted rosemary and garlic potatoes, toast and tomato & lettuce salad

This was a spur-of-the-moment creation for breakfast today (March 17, 2007). I was supposed to go out for fish head noodles for breakfast today with a friend before heading to KLIA POS Malaysia to collect a parcel from the US (needed customs clearance apparently) but it was raining heavily and he had to run some errands for his friend so I managed to find some stuff in the refrigerator to come up with this. Tasted quite good except that the roasted potatoes were a bit too salty.

Pictures here taken without studio lighting and tripod, just with my external flash.

Recipe for roasted rosemary and garlic potatoes

Ingredients
5 or 6 small waxy potatoes (I used the pink skin ones, which can be found at Bangsar Village's Village Grocer, Cold Storage and Jusco)
1 sprig of rosemary
3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
pinch of salt

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven for 20 mins (at 180C)
2. Clean the potatoes and cut into 4 quarters, leave the skin intact.
3. Chop the rosemary leaves and garlic finely.
4. Add the rosemary, garlic, salt and olive oil to the potatoes, mix till even.
5. Roast the potatoes for about 20 minutes, serve hot.

Curries...shot to get paid! Woo hoo...I'm "OFFICIALLY" a food photographer

The BIG DAY in my professional food photography journey. My cousin has approached me to help her take some food photos to used for product packaging. Her company sells packaged instant curry pastes. I bought a new studio lighting a couple of days ago just so that I can get to shoot these photos properly. On Friday night I was trying to get the lighting working and really had trouble getting the effects done properly. Thanks to Sam's suggestion (my interpreter), I managed to make it run properly, and by the time I figured out...it was already past midnight! Oh well, certainly worth the time I guess.

I didnt get paid much for this but now at least I can claim that I shoot food photographs professionally (even on a freelance basis hehe)! The lighting helped quite a bit. Took me like 3 hours to shoot for the 3 curry paste products, and another 3 hours to go through the photos, converted to JPGs from RAW files and burn the CDs.

Let me know what you think of the photos, would love to have feedback! Thanks Sam for the reminder on using the flash function of the lighting! P.S. Kindly DO NOT use these photos for any purposes as you and I can be sued if found to use these pictures. Sorry guys!








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