Omurice (Chicken and Tomato Rice wrapped in Fried Eggs)

Omurice, is a contemporary Japanese dish. I guess it’s invented not long ago, yet it quickly becomes a very popular dish around the world.

Omurice is a kind of fried rice, commonly cooked with chicken, tomato sauce and ketchup, wrapped in omelette (a thin sheet of fried egg). In every Japanese restaurant, you’ll easily find this dish on their menu.

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Miso Mushroom Pork (Quick Stir Fry)

This miso mushroom pork is a stir fry dish. It’s quick to make and packed with flavours.

The main ingredient in this dish is miso paste, commonly used in Japanese cooking. Miso paste is a fermented condiment, mainly made from soy beans and rice or barley, developed with big flavours and nutrients.

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Pork Chops with Creamy Mushroom Sauce (Instant Pot Recipe)

You need only one pot, that’s Instant Pot to make this delicious and juicy pork chops with creamy mushroom sauce. Fuss free and mess free in the kitchen.

Oftentimes pork chops are tough and leathery after cooking. Any workaround?

If using the wrong cuts or over-cooked, you might feel like wasting all the money to get the pork chops. To get the best results, try to get pork chops with more fat as fat makes meat tender.

Fat?! This word scares many people away. Wait, the par-cooking process (aka partially cook beforehand) using pan-frying method will help render the grease out of pork chops. Best still, par-cooking produces a beautiful brown colour on pork chop surface, increases aroma and adds more flavours.

On top of that, I found another method. This recipe can be taken as another tested workaround.

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Braised Chicken Thighs with Button Mushrooms [Mother's Day Dinner]

I love cooking for the family, sometimes enjoy someone cooks for me in special occasions. On mother’s day, I tasted my daughter’s dish again. I was thrilled when she announced at our dinner table the day before mother’s day, that she would cook me a dinner. What a treat that I treasure the most. We, as a family, could stay comfortably at home, watching MasterChef and chatting over meals. Often times, I feel a simple dish is the best taste, and a simple lifestyle is the most enjoyable.

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Mushroom Risotto

At my first encounter with risotto in an Italian restaurant, I just felt that the rice was more or less like the seasoned rice cooked in Chinese way. The way of cooking risotto and the Chinese seasoned rice we used to eat are totally different of course. The common ingredient of both kinds of rice is stock. What makes risotto so different is the unique, chewy texture of the rice, seasoned with cream and cheese, together with herbs.

To cook risotto is simple and easy, yet you need patience to stir and watch over while it’s cooking. When I enjoyed the chewy, creamy risotto, I felt all the efforts I put in was so worth. It’s a wonderful, comfort dish that can be eaten alone, not just a side.

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Gnocchi in Creamy Mushroom Sauce (Gnocchi Party)

Twitter is a place where I can find and chat with like-minded people, as well as get myself motivated in both cooking and blogging. Over the twitter chats with @jeroxie and @DivinaPe, an idea of throwing a gnocchi party online was evolved. Thanks for Penny for organizing the gnocchi party, and welcome other foodies to join in (see the link list below). I’m pretty sure that we can share and learn with each other by participating this gnocchi party.

At first, I was a bit hesitated to cook gnocchi, not only because have I ever cooked gnocchi before, although I really enjoy it at some restaurants, but also have I heard that gnocchi recipes aren't for the faint of heart. After a few exchanges with Penny and Divina, I was really glad to take up the challenge and join this gnocchi party with excitement.

After making up my mind to join, suddenly I recalled a cookbook written by Jamie Oliver, entitled “Cook with Jamie”, that was one of my Mother’s Day presents from my kids. With a surprise, there is a section about cooking gnocchi which I haven’t touched at all. How wonderful I felt when I found Jamie’s gnocchi recipe. That looks very delicious and easy to make. 

But still, I was a bit worried how to go about making some nice and beautiful gnocchi because I don’t have a ricer or any proper equipments to help make potato dough. Many thanks to Divina for telling me that a strainer would work for mashing potatoes. For traditional gnocchi, it’s got some nice and nifty patterns on it. How could I make perfect potato dough and patterns with my bare hands? Then I found Heidi Swanson explained every detail on “How to Make Gnocchi like an Italian Grandmother Recipe” with gorgeous pictures on her blog, 101 Cookbooks. Heidi’s post helped me out from anxiety and cleared all my uncertainties. Then off I went to make my first gnocchi with a fork.

Combining with bits and pieces of information at my fingertips, I started to cook my first gnocchi ever. It turned out wonderful. The gnocchi was deliciously light, not too dry nor too soggy, absorbed all the tasty flavours of the creamy mushroom sauce. It’s a big hit in my family.

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Baked Turkey Leg with Mushroom Gravy

A whole baked turkey is one of the traditional Christmas dishes. What a sensational enjoyment it would be when tasting the tender turkey meat going with some favourite salad.

It’s quite challenging to bake a whole turkey evenly with moist meat inside without burnt outside anyway. So before gathering guts to bake a whole bird, I tried to experiment with a turkey leg. The dish turned out really wonderful and more delicious than I thought. The turkey meat was tender enough, going really well with the delicious mushroom gravy. Best of all, this dish costs a few dollars, guaranteed with 100% success rate.

I love eating turkey not only in festive seasons, but also at anytime I think of it. Here’s the dish that I used a turkey leg with thigh that weighted 1.6 kg, enough to feed my whole family of three. My daughter dressed up the salmon salad for us. Yum…. I guess I would bake it again when the warm Christmas comes down under in two weeks’ time as this dish would take shorter baking time without heating up my kitchen too much.

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