Pork Cutlets with Creamy Mustard Sauce

Cooking competitions have been flourishingly produced and aired by several Australian television channels, one followed another without any stop recently, I can say. I, myself really like watching all the cooking shows. Not only could I feel and share the passions of every contestant and get myself more motivated to cook, but also I learn so much from the shows. My Kitchen Rules was one of the shows I enjoyed. One of their judges, Manu Feildel’s critic on every contestant’s dish with a sexy French accent was a great attraction to me, throwing lots of insights on how to go about and improve cooking. When My Kitchen Rules was approaching to air their finale episode, his new cookbook, Manu’s French Kitchen was on the way of releasing. In his new cookbook, Manu demonstrates making authentic French dishes at home is such an easy job. I tried his Pork Cutlets with Creamy Mustard Sauce with an amazing end result. It’s a big hit in the family. The rich flavour of creamy mustard sauce entertained all our tastebuds. This dish is so simple to make on the go. All you need is to get good quality pork if possible, to produce the best results.

Hot Cross Buns (Tangzhong Method)

Easter is just coming around the corner. Due to my recent addiction to making tangzhong breads, I tried to turn this traditional hot cross bun recipe into a Tangzhong version. I can make as many hot cross buns ahead, so that I don’t need to get up from bed very early on the Easter morning, because the Tangzhong buns can be kept soft for more days. If you are a big fan of spicy flavoured breads, please adjust the amount of the mixed spice, and add extra hint of cinnamon powder if you like.

Tomato Tofu Egg Drop Soup (番茄豆腐蛋花湯)

After I posted this quick egg drop soup (蛋花湯) on my Chinese blog and fan page about two weeks ago, some of my fans responded with warm remarks that this soup reminds them of their good old days when they studied overseas. I feel what they feel, totally with them. I know many overseas students have to cook by themselves for saving up money for their tuitions. They don’t have many spare money to cook dishes with expensive ingredients. This soup is simple, homey and downright easy to whip up especially at times you don’t have many ingredients stocked in kitchen. Not only this soup is handy, it’s not expensive. Best of all, it contains lots of nutrition we need.

Stir Fried Sugar Snap Peas with chicken

Peas are commonly used in Chinese stir fry. It’s not only because they have green fresh colour, but also they add more texture, and make the whole dish more enjoyable to eat. Sugar snap peas (aka sugar peas or snap peas) look similar to but actually differ from snow peas. They have round pods as opposed to the flat shape of snow peas. We’re not quite into eating them raw for their grassy taste. Stir frying sugar peas briefly over medium-high heat will bring up their natural sweetness, while their crunchy texture can still be maintained perfectly. This Stir Fried Sugar Snap Peas with chicken has a lot to offer in texture, crunchy sugar peas, with smooth cloud ears and crisp baby corns. The authentic Asian taste of this dish will surely win the hearts of those who like healthy, quick Chinese stir fry.

Lasagna (Beef and Eggplant)

Before moving to Australia, my parents always said to me that the moon was bigger overseas. It seems that they are right. The moon looks brighter and larger due to no high-rise buildings around blocking the view. I found the eggplants here are very big as well. The one I made lasagna was nearly 1 kg. It’s a giant eggplant indeed. My daughter is a big fan of eggplants, big or small ones are on the top list of her favourite vegetables. This lasagna was made the other day to ease her cravings. She nearly finished one whole tray by herself. I guess she was very pleased and satisfied.

I used fresh lasagna sheets made by my pasta machine. To make fresh lasagna sheets by scratch is much easier than I thought, just took a bit longer time to get them ready. No need to cook them in water in advance. What I needed was to roll them in the right size, placed in the baking tray with sauce, then that’s it. If you’d like to try this recipe and are too busy to make lasagna sheets from scratch, you might substitute the dried ones bought from supermarkets. I tried San Remo’s Instant Lasagna sheets, needless to pre-cook, the end results were good. Thus, I keep a packet of it in my pantry to back up for a lazy day.

You might’ve noticed that I used soy sauce to marinate the beef, that’s quite a deviant way of cooking an Italian dish. In response to the trend of making crossed-over, fusion cuisine in Hong Kong, I made a little tweak in preparing the beef. The soy sauce acts like an umami enhancer, bringing up the sauce to another tasty level.