Japanese Facial Massage: Beauty with your own hands

Found this video on YouTube a week ago. Really like it. The Massage Guru said that the massage can make your face 1 CM slimmer.

Going Banana (Fritters)

Banana Fritters is one of my fave. I love having banana fritters with chocolate sauce, honey or vanila ice cream. It's easy to make and what's more, banana is good for your body.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup milk
2 bananas, cut into piece

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup icing sugar or powdered sugar

Vegetable oil for frying

DIRECTIONS

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the milk and bananas. Sift in the flour, salt, and baking powder. Thoroughly mix in the eggs.

2. Heat the oil in a large skillet.

3. Carefully place the banana (piece by piece) into the hot oil and fry until brown. Flip the fritter and continue to brown. Remove fritters from the oil and drain on paper towels.

4. Dust the fritters with icing sugar and serve while warm. You can also serve it with honey or chocolate sauce.

Go Inter: Chicken Adobo

"Adobo is one of the first dishes Filipinos learn to cook, as it is simple and requires just a handful of ingredients. In good-tasting adobo, none of the spice flavors dominates but rather the taste is a delicate balance of all the ingredients. As with most dishes, there will be slight variations in the ratios of the ingredients or the cooking process, and the cook's unique touch is impressed upon the final outcome" - Wikipedia

When I was living in Manila, our cook usually cooked either pork or chicken adobo for us. It's quite similar to the Thai's pa lo and tom kem, but adobo is a lil bit more sour because of the vinegar. Adobo is simple to make, but so unique that will surely impressed whoever tastes it.

Recipe from http://www.filipinofoodrecipes.net/adobo.htm

Ingredients:

1 Kg of Chicken Wings (I like the small chicken legs, so that's what I'm using)

1 head garlic, minced

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 cup vinegar

2 cups of water

1 teaspoon paprika

5 laurel leaves (bay leaves)

4 tablespoons of cooking oil or olive oil

2 tablespoons cornstarch 3 tablespoons water

Directions:

1. In a big sauce pan or wok, sauté garlic and onions on cooking hot 2 tablespoons of oil.
2. Add the chicken to the pan. Add 2 cups of water, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, vinegar, paprika and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or when meat is tender.
3. Remove the pork and chicken from the sauce pan and on another pan, heat cooking oil and brown the pork and chicken for a few minutes.
4. Mix the browned pork and chicken back to the sauce and add cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken. Bring to a boil then simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
5. Serve hot with the adobo gravy and plain rice.

Masarap!!!

Stir-fried Rice with Egg and Spring Onions with Coriander Tempura

Coriander is quite nutritious, being rich in Vitamin C, calcium phosphorus and beta carotene. Research carried out in the United States suggests that coriander may be beneficial for lowering blood-cholesterol. In lab experiments carried out with diabetic mice, coriander also showed the effect of lowering blood sugar level. Coriander even contains antibiotic substances that can prevent some forms of food poisoning.



Spring Onion which contain the antioxidant quercetin like other onions, is a good natural remedy for many sinus, menopause, or even cellulite.

(Photo from www.simply-thai.com)

So today, I'll cook a dish with spring onion and coriander as main ingredients





Stir-fried Rice with Egg

Ingredients (For 1 Serving)

100 gram of pork, sliced

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon of chopped garlic

2 tablespoons of choppes spring onions

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoon of seasoning sauce

2 teaspoon of sugar

1 cup of cooked rice (make sure that the rice is not too soft)

Instructions

1. Saute garlic until golden brown, then add pork.

2. When the pork is cooked, add rice. Season with soy sauce, seasoning sauce and sugar. Mix all ingredients well.

3. Part the rice to create a circle in the center of the pan. Add the egg in the center of the pan.

4. Wait until the egg is cooked, then blend in the egg with the rice. Add spring onion. Mix the ingredients well.

5. Serve while it's hot with lemon and fresh spring onion.

Coriander Tempura

Ingredients (1 Serving)

1 cup of chopped coriander

1 cup of tempura flour

1/3 cup of cold water

Vegetable oil for frying

Instructions:

1. Make tempura batter by adding water and tempura flour together in the bowl. Be sure to use very cold water.

2. Heat vegetable oil in a deep pan. Lightly dip the coriander in the batter and immediately fry them until crisp.

3. Drain the tempura on a rack or oil absorbing paper.

4. Serve right away.

Appetizer: Sweet Corn Patty

This is a good appetizer for kids and adult. Easy and fun to make.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cup of Cooked Sweet Corn

1 Cup of Ground Pork

1 Egg

2 Tablespoons of Three Musketeer

1 Tablespoon of Multi-purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Teaspoon of Sugar

Oil for frying

Instructions:

1. Mix corn well with pork, flour, egg, salt, sugar and three musketeer.

2. Shape the mixture into a small flat ball.

3. Fry in hot oil until turns golden brown. Serve with either chilli sauce or tomato sauce.

Go Inter: Japanese Curry with Low Fat Tonkatsu

In Thailand, "go inter" is a slang used when someone is working internationally or doing sth very international. You get what I mean?? I'm going inter today because I'm cooking Japanese Food. What I'll do now is Japanese Curry with Low Fat Tonkatsu. Why low fat? Because I'll not fry the tonkatsu, but cook it in the oven instead.


Ingredients:

The Curry

1/4 Cup of Cubed Potato

1/4 Cup of Cubed Carrots

1/4 Cup of Chooped Onions

Half Pack of Japanese Curry Cube

1 1/ 2 Cup of Water

Tonkatsu
3 Pieces of Pork Fillet
2 Egss, Beaten
1/4 Cup of All Purpose Flor
1/2 Cup of Bread Crumbs
Pepper and Salt



Directions:

Curry:

1. Heat potatoes, carrots and onions water. Boil the vegetables until they are cooked.
2. Add the curry cube and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Tonkatsu:

1. Toast the bed crumbs until turns golden brown.
2. Pound meat and sprinkle it with pepper and salt on both sides of the meat. (Do not pound it too thinly)
3. Put egg, flour, bread crumbs in 3 separate shallow trays. Spread flour on both sides of the meat. Pat off excess flour then dip into beaten egg. Spread meat onto bread crumbs. Cover the meat with crumbs and press it a little. Repeat this processs on all slices.
4 . Heat the oven at 180 Degree Celcius. Cook both side for 10 minutes each.

NOTE: If you ask me, my verdict is the fried tonkatsu taste alot better (but also fatter)

Kaeng Jued Pak Kard Hor (Cabbage Roll Soup)

This is a good dish to start my day with. A hotel cabbage soup. Yummy!

Ingredients:

1 Head of Chinese Cabbage

100 Grams of Ground Pork

2 Mushrooms

1 Knorr Pork Soup Cube

1 1/2 Cup of Water

1 Teaspoons of The Three Musketeers (Check "The Three Musketeers Blog")

1 1/2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce

Directions:

1. Boil the cabbage leaves, leave by leave, until the leaves are soften, but not overly cooked. The set aside to cool down.

2. Mix the ground pork with three musketeers.

3. Roll the pork into the cabbage leaves.

4. Heat the knorr soup cube in 1 1/2 cup of water. When boil, add the cabbage rolls.

5. Add the mushrooms an season with soy sauce (to taste).

Bon Apetit

Basic Thai Ingredients: The Three Musketeers

Basic Thai Ingredients: The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers that I'm referring to are coriander root, garlic and corn pepper grounded together . So you can relax now. We, Thai, do not eat Athos, Porthos and Aramis. The three musketeers is used to marinate meat for stuffing or for making meatballs.

Microwave Cooking: Kung Ob Woonsen (Prawns Cooked in Rice Vermicelli)

Cooking with microwave is very easy and fast. You can have a meal ready within a snap. And now, I'm going to show you how to cook a Thai dish using microwave oven.

Kung Ob Woonsen

Ingredients:

4 Prawns

1 Cup of Rice Vermicelli, soaked in water for at least 7 minutes

4 Mushrooms

2 Tablespoons of Smashed Black Pepper

3 Slices of Old Ginger

2 Smashed Coriander Roots

3 Smashed Garlic Cloves

1/4 Cup of Chinese Celery, Chopped

2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce

1 Teaspoons of Seasoning Sauce

1 Tablespoon of Oyster Sauce

2 Teaspoons of Sesame Oil

2 Teaspoons of Sugar

2 Teaspoons of Vegetable Oil

1/4 Cup of Soup

Directions:

1. Mix the vermicelli, black pepper, soy sauce, seasoning sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, sesame oil and vegetable oil in a bowl and set aside.

2. Put the gingers, garlics and coriander roots in a microwavable pot (with lid). Microwave the ingredients for 1.30 minutes at High.

3. Then add the prawns and mushrooms to the mix and microwave for another 3 minutes.

4. Then add the marinated vermicelli to the prawns and microwave for 1.30 minutes.

5. Mix all the ingredients together and then add the celery and microwave for another 30 seconds.

Ba Ba Banoffee Pie

This is the easy and cheap version of Bannoffee Pie. It is my adaptation of Vanilla Industry's Banoffee Pie (with cheaper and lesser ingredients). Here goes.

Ingredients:

(For 8 Cups)

For Pie

2 Packs of Oreo Cookies, only the cookies are needed...as for the cream filling...

[The Funny thing is I think I gain more Kgs from cooking this since I was pretty tempted by Oreo Cream fillings]

1/3 Cup of Melted Butter

4 Banana, sliced

2 Cups of Whipping Cream, whipped til peaking

Cinnamon

For Caramel

1/3 Cup of Butter

1/2 Cup of Sweeten Condensed Milk

2 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoons of Sugar

Other Tools

1 Ziplock Bag

Instructions:

1. Crush the cookies in the ziplock bag with rolling pin until they are reduced to crumbs. Place the crumbs in mixing bowl.

2. Pour 1/3 cup of melted butter into the crumbs and mix them until they start to bind together.

3. Transfer the biscuit crumbs to the serving glasses (or whatever dish you are using) and pat with a spoon so that they cover the base.

4. Place the sliced bananas on top of the cookies. Place in the fridge to set.

5. Heat the butter, brown sugar, sugar and condensed milk in sauce pan. Keep stirring until all the ingredients are melt and mixed. When done, set aside for the caramel to cool down.

6. Pour the caramel onto the cookies and bananas. Place back in the fridge to cool.

7. Whip the cream until peaking, then fold on top and smooth out.

8. Dust with cinnamon powder. Keep in the fridge until needed.