Vegetarian's Aglio Olio (Original Recipe)

     So this is basically a stir-fry you can do with whatever spare ingredients you have lying around your home. That's how I came up with it today. Oh and its vegetarian.

"No man is lonely eating spaghetti;

it requires so much attention."

~ Christopher Morley

Vegetarian's Aglio Olio

Ingredients

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic

about 2 cups cooked spaghetti

1/2 head broccoli

3 mushrooms

4-5 small potatoes (boiled)

(or two large potatoes)

1 chili

(2 if you don't mind the spice)

3-4 tbsps lemon juice

2-3 tbsps olive oil

1 tbsp butter

extra virgin olive oil

coriander

mixed herbs

oregano

salt

pepper

Chop onion, garlic cloves, broccoli and mushrooms.

Heat some oil in a deep dish frying pan and once heated, fry the chopped onion.

Once some of the onions have browned at the edges, toss in the broccoli and mushrooms.

Add a pinch of salt and stir.

Chop up the boiled potatoes or leave them in chunks to be added later.

Stir those in too if you'd like.

Finally add the spaghetti and stir.

Add the garlic and chili,

Add another pinch of salt and the other spices and herbs. Stir well.

Toss in the butter and just let it melt into the spaghetti,

add the lemon juice and top with extra virgin olive oil.

Toss and stir and all that stuff again for good measure.

Serves 2-3

     Feel free to add more lemon if it works. Actually I don't even know if Aglio Olio is really made this way but it does taste similar to it. You can also use other ingredients if you think it works. Happy experimenting!

Coconut Lemon Basmati Rice & My Original Tomato Chicken Recipe

     Right so. I came across this recipe when I was watching Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals. He's an incredible chef by the way, I highly recommend watching his cooking shows. So hats off to him for this fabulous and extremely easy recipe.

"Rice is great if you're really hungry and

want to eat two thousand of something."

~ Mitch Hedberg

Coconut Lemon Basmati Rice

Ingredients

1 cup Basmati rice

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup water

half a lemon (with the juice squeezed out)

Pour the water, rice and coconut milk into a pot on the stove and bring to a boil.

(It doesn't matter how you do this really, as long as they all go in.)

Cover the pot and let boil for 8-10 minutes until desired consistency.

Once the rice is cooked, remove it from the stove.

Place the squeezed lemon half in the center of the pot and cover it again.

(This is to let the rice absorb some of the lemon fragrance. I find it best to cut the base of the lemon half so both sides are exposed. This is so the fragrance is more evenly distributed.)

So your rice should have the consistency that rice usually has,

if it is too wet remove the lid of the pot to let some of the excess water evaporate.

Serves 4

      This is one of the simplest most fool-proof recipes I know. The number one rule of cooking rice is one part rice, two parts water. So in this case we're just switching out one part of water with coconut milk. You can use other types of rice but I think the texture of Basmati rice really works in this case. I'm sure you could just use a rice cooker but honestly whats the fun in that. This goes well with almost any Asian meat or vegetable dish, whatever is to your liking. Go on and experiment :) Or you could just use my tomato chicken recipe.

      So I mentioned in my last post that I've been coming up with some recipes of my own. I was bored so I decided to play with some of the food in my house. But trust me, if you do it right (provided I type it out right) its actually pretty good. I've gotten good feedback from my family members and myself. [Warning: I never write down my recipes so its usually just impromptu cooking. The measurements may be off, I might miss out a few ingredients or maybe just give you the wrong instructions.] So here goes.

An Lyn's Original (thus, not very good)

Tomato Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

6-7 pieces of chicken fillet

(depending on how many you want)

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 lemon

soy sauce

salt

pepper

mixed herb spices

nutmeg 

coriander (powder form)

olive oil

1 tomato

1 onion

1/2 cup tomato sauce

Use a knife to score one or both sides of each chicken fillet.

(This helps it absorb more flavor and cook faster)

Marinate in plain yogurt for at least 5 minutes.

You can also leave it in the fridge for a few hours.

(This really tenderizes the chicken and makes it juicier)

This is the part where I kind of estimated the ingredients and just put random things in really. But it turned out tasting pretty good so I'm not complaining:

For the chicken marinade, add a drizzle of olive oil,

the juice from half or one whole lemon

(I'd try half first, then add according to how I like it),

pinch of salt and pepper,

one or two table spoons of soy sauce

(maybe more depending on how much you want),

a sprinkle of nutmeg and coriander (in powder form).

I would really encourage you to experiments with the ingredients here and add your own, there's no incorrect way of doing it. Mix the ingredients together and start dipping your yogurt covered chicken in it to marinate. Save the excess marinate sauce.

Start chopping your onion and tomato.

Add one or two tablespoons of olive oil into a hot pan and wait until hot.

Then fry the onions to your liking.

Add the marinated chicken to the onions in the pan

(or you can remove the onions if this makes it easier).

Fry the chicken until it is all cooked then add the tomatoes, onions and tomato sauce.

(An alternative is to remove the chicken first then add the tomatoes, onions and tomato sauce to then pan, afterwards pouring it onto the chicken).

Serves 4-5

     So I know this may be confusing. So much for my original recipe. But if you do try it, please leave your thoughts in the comments below! I shall post one more original recipe when I find the time.

" This sounds like a brag, but I know how to make good fried rice.

I learned in college.

There are two secrets - take the rice after you cook it and let it get cold in the fridge.

Then cook the egg like you're making a fried egg and just before it's done,

dump the rice and veg on it and swirl it around."

~ Patton Oswalt

Look Who's Back (it's me)

     Hey so. It's me. Today I remembered that I had an abandoned food blog.  Surprisingly, it's been doing quite well without me. Maybe even better. Definitely more viewers which is absolutely crazy, thank you so much! It's been quite a while hasn't it. 2013. That's like, three years since my last post.

     Alright here's the deal, I'm not here to start up this blog again. But if I do find spare time and new recipes, I'll update. No guarantees though, I am extremely lazy.

     I've actually been experimenting with my own recipes so if I find the time they're going on here. I also want to sincerely apologize for all the posts that I've uploaded previously. I despise my 13 year-old self. All her writing is embarassing. But please do check out the recipes, they're the only things that are good here. Since then I have made a few slight changes to this blog.

     I've seen some of your comments, and if I can figure out how to reply I will. (so not a tech person) Most of the comments were asking about the font. Apparently, the old text font I used was cute. It was Indie Flower. If you use google blogger like I do, you can find it under template  > customize > blogger template designer > advanced > fonts. I will look through the other comments and hopefully get back to you.

ttys
An Lyn

Follow me on Tumblr: http://calanlyn.tumblr.com/ or Twitter: twitter.com/worshipthyband

I'm Taking a Break, Sorry

      Hi guys. I'm really sad to say, I'm going to give this blog a break. Recipes are just too hard to find nowadays and time isn't really on my side here. I have exams coming up, streaming for next year and stuff. And besides, people aren't reading my latest posts. But if there are any recipes I come across, I PROMISE to post them :) And you guys can still check out my other recipes.

Love You
An Lyn

Vanilla Ice Cream Crepe

      Hi guys, sorry I haven't been so up-to-date with the postings. Its pretty hard to find recipes nowadays so this is gonna have to be quick.

Baking cookies is comforting, and cookies are the

sweetest little bit of comfort food.

They are very bite-sized and personal. 

~ Sandra Lee

     Okay, I just found out that I have no more Amos Lee recipes, but I found some here and there in random cook books. This recipe was taken from a Chinese cookbook but I guess this is the most Western dish they have here.

Vanilla Ice Cream Crepe

100g plain flour (sifted)

25g icing sugar

230ml fresh milk

3 egg yolks

some melted butter

Mix flour sugar and milk.

Add in egg yolks and mix to form batter.

Heat up flat-bottom frying pan,

Spread some melted butter on it and

pour in 2-3 tablespoons of batter.

Pan-fry until it turns golden-brown.

Scoop on some vanilla ice cream and

strawberries for the fun of it.

 

      Now that was the easy way, but if you want to make your own ice cream, here's the recipe:

Vanilla Ice Cream

80g castor sugar

2 and 1/2 tablespoons smoothie powder

30ml hot water

3 egg yolks

250ml fresh milk

300ml fresh cream

few drops of vanilla essence

Stir sugar, smoothie powder and hot water. Set aside.

Mix yolks with milk, keep warm over low heat

before adding the smoothie mixture.

With a mixer, whip fresh cream until light and fluffy.

Add egg yolk mixture, stir in the essence

and leave it in the freezer for 2 and 1/2 hours.

Bring out the half-frozen ice cream and stir it

loose with a spoon. Set it firmly

and evenly before putting it back into

the freezer for two hours.

Or you could just get it from the shop.

      Okay so I'm going to be overseas for the next few days. It will be hard to post, but I'll try to post something if I can find Wi-fi. So, bye-bye then!

The All-Chocolate Amos Lee Cookies

      Hi! So what recipe shall I do today? Bet you thought I'd be posting late again? Well, not this time! So last week we did the Breakfast Smoothie. I probably didn't mention it was from The Diary Of Amos Lee by Adeline Foo. And here's another recipe from that book. So its called The All-Chocolate Amos Lee Cookies.

I love raw cookie dough, right out of the tube.

The other thing I eat is marshmallow fluff. 
~ Sandra Bullock

The All-Chocolate Amos Lee Cookies

Ingredients

600g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bi-carbonate of soda

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

300g castor sugar

240g dark brown sugar

4 medium sized eggs

200g dark chocolate melted

300g white chocolate melted

600g cocoa flavoured chips

500g unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C for 10 minutes.

Line cookie trays with baking paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bi-carbonate of soda and salt.

Use an electric mixer and cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes.

Add eggs (slightly beaten), one at a time and

beat for 20 seconds after each addition.

Add the vanilla extract and melted dark chocolate.

Blend well!

On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 batches.

Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl, and then at low speed,

add the cocoa chips and melted white chocolate, mix well.

Drop about 2 tablespoons of batter into the cookie trays.

Place them 2 inches apart.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes until the cookies are golden brown.

Leave cookies on tray for about 2 minutes before cooling them on a rack.

  

      Yea that seems really choc-late-ty. Yea WOW. If only I could taste that. Now, cupcake ideas from Bittersweet. These are sort of the chapter headings, so the names may sound a little weird. Oh and the pictures aren't exact. Ready? OKAY! 

Red-hot Double Crush Cakes

Ginger vanilla cupcakes with
chilli-infused dark chocolate cream cheese frosting,

Dusted with cinnamon

Shoulda-Coulda-Woulda Cakes
Miniature banana cupcakes
smeared with a thin layer of
Honey vanilla icing

 

      Okay so I guess that's all for today, Come back next week! <3 1d.="" 4="" font="" nbsp="">

The Breakfast Smoothie

       Hi! Uh, so... Long time no post, huh? Really sorry was super busy with examinations.  I know I didn't post last weekend and my last recipe on The Soft Pretzel is unfinished... I guess I've been a little distracted these past few days. Okay I'll start of with the rest of the recipe for the pretzel:

"Just a simple twist makes all the difference."

~ C.A.L.

The Completed Pretzel

Baking the Pretzel

Place the pretzels on an un-greased cookie pan.

Brush the top with some of the beaten egg.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes until brown.

Remove from the oven and spread with melted butter.

Sprinkle some salt before serving.

      Okay this smoothie is REALLY fruity. Okay, it says it helps with constipation. So, yea its pretty healthy. I had to go through a lot to get this recipe, you have no idea what happened. So just- Sigh... Just do with it what you must.

"Smoothies are... Smooth."

~ Unknown

The Breakfast Smoothie

100g papaya, cut into cubes

1 large banana cut into pieces

8 strawberries washes and cut

125g crushed ice

100g washed blueberries

180ml fresh milk

125ml freshly squeezed Orange Juice

 2 tablespoons of honey

Place all ningredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Remember to keep the lid on before you press the start button.

Serve and drink. Makes 3 cups

      Before we close off, I'd like to share the cupcake ideas from Bittersweet. These are sort of the chapter headings, so the names may sound a little weird. Oh and the pictures aren't exact. As I say every week:

The good, The bad, and The Cupcakes

Oatmeal pumpkin cupcakes
shot through with chocolate fudge,
 topped with a thin layer of fudge icing
and toasted coconut tumbleweeds

Sticks-and-stones-may-break-my-bones-

but-falling-down-hurts-real-bad-too Cupcakes

Red velvet cupcakes with warm raspberry center
and cream cheese icing, topped with mashed mixed berries
and served on a chocolate-drizzled plate

      Well I think that's all for this week. So bye now, keep reading.  : )