Avocado Chicken Salad Sandwich

Light & refreshing light lunch to beat the afternoon heat! Avocado chicken salad croissant serve along with a glass of homemade lemon barley and lots of chilled watermelons. Next round I must double the salad recipe as it was not enough to go around the table hehehehe...

Method: 1 ripen avocado diced, 1 cup cooked chicken breast diced, 1 apple diced, 1/4 cup chopped celery, 1/4 cup chopped red onion, handful of chopped coriander. Add 2 tsp lime juice, salt & black pepper to taste and mix everything! No mayonnaise required and is healthier! The creamy mashed avocado helps to bind all ingredients up. This can be served on its own or as filling in sandwiches.

recipe ref : simplerecipe.com

Steamed Ribs in Pumpkin 南瓜蒸排骨

Revisiting this steamed ribs in pumpkin I done few years back. :) As my kids are now more accustomed to spicy dishes, I've added the chilli into the stir-frying rather then omitting it out. I find it tasted much better with a tinge of spiciness in the gravy!

Remove seeds and slice off the bottom slightly so that it can 'sit' in a casserole.

Hmmm why is there a piece of papaya with the pork ribs!? As I have modified the recipe, the steaming duration has reduced significantly. To ensure the ribs are tender enough, I've mashed up the papaya and coated with the ribs for a while before blanching them in boiling water! Besides using papaya, you can try ginger and pineapple as they contain natural vegetable enzymes which helps to dissolve the protein and connective tissue, i.e....natural meat tenderizer!

 Ingredients for stir-frying....ginger, onion, black fermented beans, dried orange peel, spring onion and red chilli

 Scoop out the steamed pork ribs and gravy and serve along with the pumpkin at the side. My kids could not stop asking for more gravy over their rice! 

 sweet & soft pumpkin flesh

Ingredient

• 300gm pork ribs, cut into small chunks
• 1 small slice papaya
• 1/2 pumpkin, approx. 700-800gm
• 300gm pork ribs, cut into small chunks
• 2 slices ginger
• 1 medium onion, peeled & sliced
• 1 tbsp black fermented beans, rinsed
• 5 gm dried orange peel, soaked & sliced
• 2 tbsp chinese wine
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stalk spring onion, cut into sections (reserved some green sections for garnishing)
• 1 chilli, sliced

Method

1. Mash the papaya and coat well with the ribs. Set aside.
2. Preheat a steamer. 
3. Deseeded pumpkin and rinsed. Shaved off the bottom section slightly so that it can sit in the casserole without toppling. 
4. Steam the halved pumpkin over boiling water for about 8-10 mins.  (depending on thickness)
5. Meanwhile, rinse the pork ribs. Blanch ribs in boiling water briefly. Drained well.
6. Heat 2 tbsp oil in wok, add ginger and fry till slightly brown.
7. Add onion, black fermented beans and dried orange peel. Fry till fragrant and onion is softened.
8. Add in blanched ribs and fry for 1 min.
9. Stir in wine, sugar, pepper, soy sauce & salt. Toss in spring onion and chilli. 
10. Cover and simmer for 2 mins.
11. Remove the ribs mixture from heat and scoop into pumpkin cavity. Steam over boiling water on medium heat for another 25 mins or until the pork is cooked through and the pumpkin is tender. (the pumpkin should be tender by now. If not sure, use a wooden skewer to test by piercing through the sides of the pumpkin, it should go through easily.)
12. Remove the dish from steamer, garnish with spring onion and serve immediately. 

Sushi Cake

Recently a few videos of making sushi cake keep popping on my Facebook timeline. It indeed looks very visually appealing and prompted me to google over this sushi cake! After a few references on the internet (video ref here & here), I hereby present my pretty sushi cake! Hehehe no special occasion just wanna make a beautiful 'cake' to uplift the mood ;) 

It is really straight forward to make this sushi cake. No complicated steps, try making one to impress your family! :D 

Steps in layering the sushi cake. Sliced avocado and salmon mayonnaise are used in between the layerings. 

aonori and sakura denbu to create the coloured rice

Sushi Cake 
Ingredient (makes a 7" round sushi cake)

• 2 cups Japanese short grain rice
• 2" kombu

Homemade Sushi Vinegar

• 6 tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Filling for sushi cake

• 1 avocado, thinly sliced
• 1 cup salmon mayonnaise*
• 1 tbsp aonori
• 1 tbsp sakura denbu 

* 200gm fresh salmon, seasoned with black pepper and salt. Seal in baking paper, bake @200 deg cel for 15 mins until cook through. Flaked the salmon and mix in 3 heaps tbsp mayonnaise. Chilled in fridge until ready to be used.

Decorations

• shredded tamago*
• smoked salmon, shaped into rosettes 
• poached prawns
• tobiko
• Japanese okra

* Beat 2 eggs with 1 tbsp mirin. Sieve mixture. Heat and lightly grease a non-stick pan. Ladle in some egg mixture and cook into thin omelette. Repeat till egg mixture are used up. Stack up thin omelette and thinly slice into stripes.  Chilled in fridge until ready to be used.

Method

1. Wash the rice several times till water runs clear. Add in 2 cups water and kombu. Steam over boiling water for 20 mins until cook through. (you can use a rice cooker if u preferred)
2. Meanwhile combine vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan. Simmer till sugar is well dissolved. Cool down before using.
3. After rice is cooked, transfer it into a mixing bowl. Drizzle in sushi vinegar and stir into the rice until all vinegar is well incorporated. Cover with damp cloth and leave to cool down completely. 
4. Divide sushi rice into 3 portions, approx. 300gm each. Leave one portion plain.
5. Mix in aonori into one portion of the rice to make a green layer rice.
6. Mix in sakura denbu into one portion of the rice to make a pink layer rice.
7. Prepare a 7" removable base cake pan to assemble the sushi cake. Spread the plain rice onto the base and evenly press down using the back of a spoon. Layer in sliced avocado.
8. Spread the green layer rice over and evenly press down using the back of a spoon. Spread over salmon mayonnaise.
9. Lastly spread in pink layer rice and press down evenly. Cling wrap and chill in fridge for 1 hour to firm up the whole cake. 
10. Unmould the sushi cake and place on a serving plate. Use your creativity and decorate as desired. Slice & serve!

Sushi cake before decorating

Amazingly beautiful after placing the toppings all over the surface! 

Another closer look ;)

Luckily the sushi cake is compact enough and it did not disintegrate after slicing ;)