A Collection of Beautiful Mess

Stir Fried Clams with Tomato and Basil

We Chinese love our stir fries. They are super quick 15 minute meals that you can whip up any day of the week. I admit I don’t have a well-stocked Chinese ingredients pantry. I do however have a pretty solid cupboard filled with spices and sauces for any western dishes. So I’ve got to make do with what I have.

Clams are perfect for stir fries as they cook in no time and you get a dish with…

Tea lattes are very versatile. You can mix and match different types of teas, dried flowers and flavoured syrups to make this warm soothing drink any way you want.

I tried making an English Breakfast Tea & Rose Latte the other day and made me so happy. In addition to being wonderfully fragrant, the rose is so beautiful.

  The ingredients are super simple. You can buy dried rose and vanilla extract in any baking stores or baking sections of international supermarkets.

English Breakfast Tea & Rose Latte

Ingredients:

1 cup strongly –brewed English Breakfast tea

½ cup milk

4 – 5 dried rose buds

¼ tsp vanilla extract

honey to taste

Directions:

Heat up milk with the rose buds and vanilla extract. Once hot, turn off heat and let sit for 3 minutes to let the rose infuse into the milk.

Boil water and brew the English Breakfast tea in a pot and steep for 3 – 4 minutes.

Pour tea and hot milk into a mug. Flavour with honey. Stir until combined. Decorate with a few rose petals. Serve warm.

This tea latte is super comforting and delicious.

Here are a few other flavour combinations you can try!

Earl Grey tea with Lavender (aka London Fog)

Green tea (Matcha) with Vanilla

Chai tea with maple syrup

Chamomile tea with cinnamon and cloves

Enjoy experimenting at home. I guarantee you will not be disappointed in your own creations.

For more recipes, kitchen tips and cooking ideas, follow me on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/charmainecooks

Valentine’s Sweet Treat – Dark Chocolate Ganache & Raspberry Tart

Valentine’s Day is approaching. I can feel the love in the air with all the pink and red decorations everywhere. This is the day to celebrate love. And though many people associate this to romantic love, I feel it should be all encompassing. Your love for your family and friends are just as important and that deep affection should also be recognized. It is always a delightful and warming gesture…

Cookies are one of my favourite things to bake. You just need a few basic ingredients and you can pretty much create any flavor cookies you like. But there are times when my cookies didn’t turn out the way I want them to. All the cookie’s disasters, whether it be burning them to turning six cookies into one big massive cookie because they all got stuck together when baked, I’ve encountered them…

Seoul, Korea is a great place to go for a short girls’ trip. I recently went with my cousins and we had such an amazing time. Aside from the crazy shopping of clothes and Korean skincare and cosmetics, we treated our stomachs very well with out-of-this-world Korean food! From the very local joints to the more ‘east meets west’ restaurants, Seoul has it all. One thing that we couldn’t get away…

1. Create pocket of stillness for yourself everyday. Alone time where you can gather your thoughts and “just be” is very important. It helps to clear your mind and let you focus on things that are important to you.

2. Read. Read everyday. Read anything that relates to your interests and expertise, but also read things that are relevant to what’s happening around the word, even if is outside the subjects/topics that you’d normally read. Warren Buffet reads 500 pages everyday and he is a busy man! That is quite a bit for most people, even for me, someone who (try) spends around 2 hours a day reading, whether it be books or articles. The point of reading is to cultivate knowledge. And when you read like Warren Buffet, you get really knowledgeable. A lot of creative people, business owners read non-fictions. These books give you clarity and also give you a treasure box full of information that you can apply to your daily life and they are also great conversation starters. However, I also believe is a good thing to read fictions and novels. Why? Because stories allow you to be someone else and see things through different perspectives.

“Literature is the greatest reality simulator – a machine that puts you through infinitely more situations than you can ever directly witness.” ~ Alan de Button

“A book is a little empathy machine. It puts you inside somebody else’s head. You see out of the world through somebody else’s eyes. It’s very hard to hate people of a certain kind when you’ve just read a book by one of those people.” ~Neil Gaiman, Interview on Create

3. Empathize, always. No one person goes through the same things as you do. We all perceive the world differently even when we are in the same situations. So don’t assume they are having a great day just because you are having one.

4. The world doesn’t owe you anything. It was here first.

5. Have routines. I am still trying hard to schedule my days in better ways; and this is definitely something I struggle with. I fall of the wagon easily even though I’ve been doing the same thing over and over again for months. It takes discipline and mindfulness to be adamant about your routines and this is something that I for sure will need to continue to work on in 2018.

6. Be unapologetic for who you are and have the courage to own up to your words and actions.

7. Be kind and generous to one another. Unfortunately we live in a world filled with corruptions and evil. We need all the goodness we can get.

8. Sleep is very important. If you don’t get enough sleep, it can cause havoc to your body. There are so many articles on why getting enough sleep is crucial to us all. Here’s one I’ve read recently.

10. Eat Healthy. Live Healthy. Stay Healthy. Your older self will thank you later.

11. Little steps will add up to something big in your life. Taking that big leap can be overwhelming and may cause you to second guess yourself. Instead, take chances with little things. They will accumulate into something bigger, I promise. The many little chances that I took before, from starting to teach cooking to doing cooking demos at supermarkets, have lead me to reaping my ‘something bigger’ this year when I was given the chance to film cooking videos for DayDayCook! I am so happy that I got a year’s worth of experience doing this! If you want to take a look at some of my videos, go to my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/charmainecooks

12. Don’t just look. Observe. You will gain much more insight and knowledge on other people’s thoughts and mood if you pay attention to their body language.

13. Love is a choice. It is not just an emotion you feel. You choose to show love to those you believe are worthy of your love. I’ve made the greatest choice this year by moving in with someone that I love.

14. Power Listen. Don’t just hear. Really learn to listen when you are having conversations. Of course, don’t let your mind wander, but also don’t interrupt and don’t try to think of a response while others are still speaking. If you are doing either one of those things, you aren’t listening. Be curious to learn more about the other person than of talking about about yourself (People LOVE to talk about themselves)

15. Don’t be afraid to share your work. I still struggle with this as I fear the judgements and criticisms. But having those cooking videos out for everyone to see has really taken me out of my comfort zone and made me grow. I can’t be a good judge of my own work. We all need other people to tell us their suggestions and opinions* in order for us to build on our existing knowledge and make improvements. You don’t have to agree with what others say to you, but it is still another perspective that you can ponder on. These titbits of information here and there might come in handy in your next project or blog post. *Those videos totally made my Chinese so much better because I try my very best to not slip in any English anymore as viewers have commented that it is hard to follow when I switch back and forth between Chinese and English.

Last and certainly not least …

16. Family and dear friends are the most important, ever!

One more day til my birthday and two more days til 2018. This post seems appropriate.

Happy New Year Everyone!

xo.

Christmas and New Years are just around the corner and you know what this means – festive dinner parties and gatherings. The twinkling lights, the smell of Christmas (think pine trees, cinnamon, ginger bread), the Christmas songs and all gorgeous decorations just make December all the more special. This is the time of year where I love to host a few cozy dinners for my family and close friends…

  The main purposes to cook with wine are 1) as a marinade ingredient, 2) as a cooking liquid and 3) as a flavouring for the dish. Wine helps to intensify, enhance and accent the flavour and aroma of the food. Using too little of it and you will not taste any difference but too much will be overpowering.

    When cooking with wine, you want to make sure the alcohol evaporates or else the wine will give a harsh and raw taste to your dish. So you should always add your wine early on in your cooking process and should not add it just before serving. The wine should simmer with the food or the sauce so that you can condense its beautiful flavour.

  As for what I mean by a decent wine, there is nothing wrong with a bottle of HKD70 of Merlot if you like the taste of it. By the time your dish is done, you won’t be able to tell the difference between a HKD400 bottle from a HKD70 one. And most of the recipes won’t ask you to use a whole bottle of wine, unless you are making some French beef stews; so pick a reasonably priced wine that you like so that you can also enjoy a glass or two during dinner.

What actually matters is the type of wine you are using. Here is my simple cooking with wine guide for your reference:

Most recipes call for ‘dry’ wines (not as sweet) because the sugar content of ‘dry’ wines is not as high and thus will not change the flavour of a dish (making it too sweet).

There is no need to spend a fortune on wine for cooking. The flavour and aromas that make one wine better than another are largely lost during cooking and masked by the flavours of other ingredients.

Don’t ever use red wine in a recipe if it calls for white wine. White wine is much less tannic than red (when you drink red wine and you get a dry and rough feeling in your mouth, that is the effect of tannin). Which means white wine can cook down more without turning making your dish bitter. And of course using red wine in place of white can affect the colour of your dish too. You can get away with it if you use a white wine in place of a red wine.

    You can cook with leftover wines. If you have an unfinished bottle of wine, you can put the cork back in and store it in the fridge for 3 weeks. (if you have a wine pump, then use it to get as much air out of the bottle as possible before storing in the fridge).

Best white wines to cook with for most dishes:

Sauvigonon Blanc

Pinot Grigio

Pinot Gris

Best red wines to cook with for most dishes:

Merlot

Pinot Noir

Chianti

Full-bodied, dry red wines for bolder flavour dishes such as braised beef stew:

Cabernet Sauvignon

Shiraz

  Check out my other blog post on how to make the Perfect Pan Sauce using wines: http://daydaycook.com/daydaycook/hk/website/theme/details.do?id=178956

  #Sotime recipe using red wine:

Grilled Flank Steak with Chimichurri http://daydaycook.com/daydaycook/hk/website/recipe/details.do?id=177386

Red Wine Risotto with Spanish Chorizo http://www.daydaycook.com/daydaycook/hk/website/recipe/details.do?id=183131

#Sotime recipe using white wine:

Chicken Roulade in White Wine Sauce http://daydaycook.com/daydaycook/hk/website/recipe/details.do?id=177781

  For more recipes, cooking tips and kitchen ideas, follow me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/charmainecooks

What’s in Season? My Top 5 Autumn Fruits and Vegetables for Cooking & Baking

It is always a good idea to eat according to the season. As the weather changes so does the fresh produce that is available. Each season offers a wide selection of beautiful fresh produce that are fresher and sweeter because the fruits and vegetables have been naturally ripened on the vine or the tree and harvested at the right time. This also means that they are more flavourful, nutritious and…

My Top 5 Favourite Types of Pastas

Pasta is just simple and wonderful. They are always a good idea for quick and easy weeknight dinners because they take no more than 30 minutes to cook. When we go down the pasta aisle in the supermarket, we tend to go with the familiar and grab a pack of spaghetti or penne. Here are my top 5 favourite pasta to use and suggestions on the type of sauces that you should pair them with. (more…)

Eat According to the Season: Crepes with Fresh Figs and Pears

I really love autumn. As the weather is starting to cool off, we get to spend more time in the kitchen, making slow cooked stews, braising meats and baking delicious warming desserts. From beautiful figs and juicy pears to dark leafy greens to sweet root vegetables and squashes, who could resist these seasonal goodies? Everyone should make the most of what they can find at the markets this autumn…

What is Saffron and What Can I Use It For?

Saffron is one of the world’s most delicate and expensive spices. The reason why saffron is so expensive is because this spice is the stamen from the flower Crocus sativus, which only bloom for one week of the year. Each flower produces about 3 – 4 stamen (i.e saffron), which must be picked by hand and then dried. An estimated of around 150 flowers and many hours of labour are needed to produce…

I have never been a big practitioner of using natural ingredients for healing. My family motto has always been if you feel sick, grab a pill. My home is always well stocked with Advils, Buckley’s, NyQuills, all in bulk, thanks my yearly visit to Costco. I am not trying to discount natural remedies; it is just that when it comes to fast relief, meds are always the way to go in this household. But…

Chili Powder, Cayenne and Paprika, What’s the Difference?

You go through recipes and some call for chili powder or flakes, while others call for a pinch of cayenne or a tablespoon of paprika. They all sound very different but when you are in the spice row of the supermarkets, all three of these look the same. They are vibrant red and in the form of a powder. Of course there are more varieties such as ancho chili powder, chipotle chili powder to name a…

“Paella rice” and “Risotto rice” are both a category of rice. They are both short grain rice, as opposed to the long grain rice that we are used to in Asian cuisines.

So what is the difference between these 2 types of rice?

Risotto rice is an Italian rice that gives you a creamy and soft chewy texture because of its high starch content. This short grain rice releases most of the starch quite readily while you patiently stand over the stove and stir the rice for a good 15 – 18 minutes. This is what gives risotto dishes their creaminess (no cream is needed in traditional risottos). Risotto rice absorbs 2 cups of liquid to 1 cup of rice.

    Paella rice, grown in Spain, although still a starchy short grain rice, it holds onto its starch more and thus does not give a creamy texture to the dish. Each grain of rice stays quite separated and even after they are cooked, Paella rice gives a more al dente texture. This is because the core of the grain remains relatively firm even after cooking. Paella rice also absorbs more liquid than risotto rice, usually 3:1 ratio. Therefore, if you use a risotto rice in your paella, you will definitely need to adjust the amount of liquid the recipe calls for and also be prepared to get a creamier Paella as to a drier one.

If you can only find risotto rice in the supermarket, it is okay to use it to make Paella. A trick, aside from adjust the amount of liquid, is to not stir the rice often (as this release a lot of the starch from risotto rice). Although when it comes to ingredients, I try my best to find what the dishes call for and not to make any substitutions unless necessary.

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Seafood is a great choice for quick and easy meals. Fish, prawns, clams, squids and all these delicious choices are tasty, healthy and wonderful options for those busy weeknights where you just need to get dinner on the table for yourself or your family. The simplest of seasoning such as olive oil, sea salt, black pepper and the occasional dried chili flakes are more than enough to bring out the…

5 Steps to a Perfect Pan Sauce

A lot of people ask me how to make a good sauce to go with their steaks, pork chops and chicken. A simple piece of seared steak can be turned into an amazing dish with just a simple and flavourful pan sauce. Who wouldn’t say yes to a piece of perfectly cooked meat that is topped with a smooth and glossy sauce?   To many people, a pan sauce is fancy and that you could only get in a restaurant. The…