Spoon yourself healthy (and possibly slim!)

I'm getting better at keeping up with my blog these days!

You might also notice that I've put some neat categorised Quick Recipe archive on the left tab of the page to make it easier for all of us to locate the recipe (yes, including me).

Today's post is rather general-ish, and it's about my ongoing obsession of eating (or you might call drinking) soup for both lunch and dinner. I love having soup because it's very simple to make, very healthy and really - this might sounds rather controversial - but I spoon myself to sliminess with homemade soups while occasionally splurging on dark chocolates and sweet treats! I'm sure the basic reason on why I got slimmer is because of the good healthy stuffs that I eat and the fact that I get fuller faster with the soup, thus reducing the chance that I overeat! Anyway this seems to be working - the more I eat at home, the healthier I am and the easier my effort is to keep my weight on track.

The very good thing about having soup for meals is that the high water intake will help us to get fuller faster and longer. Moreover it's free from oily stuffs (although most of my stir-fry dishes are made up of very little oil). Also - you can put a variety of 'good food' ingredients in your soup, like vegetables (Chinese cabbage is my favourite), mushrooms, wholewheat pasta, egg and meat/seafood ingredients. I've always liked meat rolls that Chinese hotpot restaurants serve, and so I bought the whole big pack of Pork Rolls from Oriental supermarket and stuffed them in my freezer. I normally use Baby Button Mushrooms because they are cheap and perfect in size - I just need to slice them in two before putting them into my pot. Tomatoes are good as well - the tomato flavour and juice will spice up your spoon and gives your soup a tomatoish flavour. Tomatoes in soup go great with eggs!

There are a lot of varieties of ingredients that you can mix in to create your own soup. Below is the picture of what I'd call a veggie + seafood soup marinara!

Veggie + Seafood Marinara Soup

The most simple way of making the soup mix is do it the oriental style. I simply boil around 400 ml of water, add chicken cubes (Knorr), and wait until the liquid boils before adding the stuffs in! You might also want Teriyaki sauce for some flavouring, or simple salt and pepper will do too!

I also put wholewheat pasta in, I strongly believe in the goodness of complex carbohydrates. My new favourite is Conchigliette wholewheat pasta for kids (yes - for kids). I found mine from ASDA.

Cooked Conchigliette wholewheat pasta

Below is what I just had for my late lunch/ early dinner!

Pork Roll and Conchigliette Soup

Basic Oriental Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

• 400 ml of water
• Knorr chicken cube (or other brand) (1 cube)
• Teriyaki sauce (optional) OR salt/pepper to add to the taste
• Fujian cooking wine (Chinese/Japanese cooking wine) [OPTIONAL]
• Chinese cabbage (5 leaves, chopped)
• Pork Roll for hotpot (from Asian supermarkets) OR can be changed to seafood stick/fish balls/beef balls/ diced chicken breasts
• Egg (preferably free range and organic - 1)
• Wholewheat pasta (approx. 50 grams)

How to Prepare:

• Cook the pasta, drain and separate in a bowl
• In a small saucepan, boil 400 ml of water
• Put the heat to medium
• Add the chicken cube, stir until completely dissolved
• Put the Chinese cabbage in, wait for around 4 - 5 minutes
• Put around 15 small pork rolls (or see substitute) in (to your liking), stir and wait until pork rolls have turned to grey cooked colour
• Crack the egg in, and carefully stir (I prefer not to break the egg's yolk) and wait for 3-5 minutes
• Splash two tablespoons of teriyaki sauce in or give more salt/pepper/seasoning
• Pour over the pasta, mix and ....
• SERVE!

How easy! And how nice and warm for the winter days! If you're living in a hot climate - this dish would also be very nice after a long day of work or study. It surely will replenish and freshen up the mind and body!

LOVE. the one by two kitchen.

Sizzling Hot Pork with Miso sauce inspired from Buta no Misoyaki!

I have a thing about Japanese food. I really do.


While I was back home at Jakarta, Indonesia, one of my favourite time of the day is lunch with my dad while we were working at the office. Our lunches range from simple Indonesian waroeng takeaways to fancy Chinese dimsum restaurants. Still - my old time favourite is the Japanese lunch at Gumon, Kyoei Prince tower at Jalan Jenderal Sudirman. The best thing about the place is that it is absolutely a hidden gem in every sense - Japanese chef, fresh ingredients, and the fact that the restaurant is always full of Japanese expatriates (always a good sign!)


While I cannot proclaim that I know everything about Japanese food, I can say that I know quite a lot. My dad's former boss was a Japanese man (and a kind-hearted one), and so my dad is quite an expert when it comes to Japanese dining. I learnt a lot from him, and we ventured a lot to various Japanese restaurants everytime I am at home.


One of the dishes that really intrigued me is Buta no Misoyaki, or grilled pork with miso sauce. I've always liked Miso sauce, but at winter time I'm usually not quite for the mood of grills. 


So on one night, while thinking about how good miso soup is, I decided to try on a new dish made from extra lean pork and miso soup paste. That simple!


The taste is superb especially in the winter time when the weather is cold. This admittably is a very simple dish, but sometimes good things come in the simplest forms, something that I truly adhere to when it comes to writing for the one by two kitchen blog!

My sizzling hot pork with miso sauce, cooked on the hob!

OK - let's get to the recipes. Jot down the shopping list and in a good 20 - 30 minutes you're ready to have this awesome sizzling hot pork with miso sauce.


NOTE: You can substitute Pork with Tuna. I've tried it and it is equally delightful. I use extra loin pork because I'm quite health conscious and is available to me, if it's not, you are free to substitute it to normal pork loin.


Makes 1 Serving.


Ingredients:

• Extra loin pork (2 medallions) [I got mine from Sainsbury's]
• Teriyaki Sauce (to marinade)
• Spring Onions (2, chopped o small pieces)
• Lettuce (handful, chopped to bite size)
• Egg (1)
• Tofu Miso Paste (preferably with seaweed inside)

Preparation*:
*Preparation is not compulsory but is recommended to ensure better taste

• Marinade the extra loin pork with Teriyaki sauce for one night (best result) or,
• Using your fork, puncture the meat evenly while smearing the Teriyaki sauce, leave for at least 30 minutes

How to Prepare:

• Dilute the Tofu Miso Soup Paste with warm water of around 200 ml
• Lightly coat the pan with oil, add spring onions when oil is hot enough
• Sizzle the spring onions for 1-2 minutes
• Put the chopped lettuces in, stir-fry and add one tablespoons of teriyaki sauce and some water, stir-fry until half-cooked
• Pour the Miso Soup in
• Put the meats on to the pan on medium heat
• Cook for around 10 - 15 minutes
• Crack the egg in to the pan
• Cook for around 10 minutes or until meat is fully cooked
• Serve on a plate or a bowl!

Served piping hot for lunch before lectures

It's so easy but it is really nice! These days I have been cooking this a lot because of its simplicity and the Miso taste (I love Miso!) I'm sure if you have never had a go for Miso, you will find the taste soy-basedly nice.

Til the next recipe!

LOVE. the one by two kitchen.

Chinese Tomato Scrambled Egg - Fan Qie Chao Dan!

Oh hello people!

I did not post anything yesterday, because I was so freaking tired after the IndoSoc of our Uni organised the largest Indonesian festival in the UK. It was an awesome day but it was very tiring as well! Kudos to the main committee and everybody!

So today I went to London for shopping (it was 30% off at Harrods) and that is the reason why I post this recipe quite late. While I was at Harrods Knightsbridge, I circled around the Food Hall and found that they have nice-looking ready-to-cook food. They all looked awesome and I am going to give them a try one day (hopefully in a week's time as I'll be going again to London!)

Talking about Posh Food - this particular recipe - Chinese Tomato Scrambled Egg or Fan Jie Cao Dan in Chinese (番茄炒蛋）- is not that posh as in you can only find them in particular restaurants. In fact, this dish is very homemade-y and is always available at small Chinese restaurants and even the canteen! I think the reason is simple. This recipe is very easy to make, and yet it is one of the tastiest food (my favourite food nonetheless). This recipe is 100% truly inspired from my true love of this dish whilst studying in China (and my extreme effort to recreate the dish before I left China for good). While I was doing my South Beach Diet (I dropped 1.6 stone - 10 kgs), I often had this dish for dinner along with a bed of veggie or veggie stir-fry. They worked on me very well!

In my early stage of cooking - I was very surprised about how flavourful tomatoes were. The tomato juice in this recipe will be absorbed by the egg, giving the scrambled egg a unique and delicious taste. Also, one of the best things about this recipe is that the only seasoning one needs is salt and thus the true flavour of tomato really rocks the dish! The one by two kitchen's secret to success for this recipe lies in the spring onions and the method of cooking - so pay attention but feel free to improvise!

I do recommend this dish for people who want to cook for their loved ones at home - especially for beginners! You will awe them for sure!

This recipe serves approximately 3 people in a typical Chinese dinner set (along with other dishes)

Ingredients:

1. Two large eggs - beaten
2. Five medium-sized tomatoes/plum tomatoes - ripe
3. Salt
4. Spring Onion (1 stick)
5. Oil

How to Prepare:

1. Chop the spring onion to small pieces
2. Cut each tomato to 4 pieces
3. In a pan, heat two tablespoons of oil
4. Pour 3/4 of the spring onion to the pan; fry and stir for around 2 minutes
5. Pour the beaten eggs to the spring onion and oil
6. Let the eggs set for a while (approximately until the eggs have created a base) then quickly scramble a little before all the eggs set; quickly transfer to a plate and set aside (NOTE: scramble a little and not to the texture of English breakfast's scrambled egg!)
7. Heat a tablespoon of oil and pour the remaining spring onion onto the pan; stir
8. Put the tomatoes to the pan; stir and wait until the tomato starts to cook and the juice comes out a little
9. Quickly put the half-cooked eggs on to the pan, stir fry
10. Occasionally using the wooden spoon press the tomatoes to help the juice comes out
11. Stir fry until the eggs have absorbed the tomato juice and turns slightly brown in colour
12. Transfer to a plate and serve!

P.S.: To excel well it is important to learn the tricks of scrambling the egg before all the egg sets and not to over-scramble them (different to scrambled egg in English breakfasts!)

Note: Some Chinese restaurants seem to add soup to the mixture and making it soupy - however I tend to not make it soupy to simplify things and to prevent using other flavouring rather than just salt and the real taste of tomato.

LOVE. the one by two kitchen.

Steamed Salmon Teriyaki with Cheese: a mix between the east and the west!

I don't normally post two recipes in a day (to give time for my blog to grow and for people to read) but because a very good acquaintance of mine, Olivia, asked me today to post the recipe for this from my FB album, I am posting it for her and for my readers too!

I love cooking salmons (and eating them too, of course). Ever since I got to the UK, salmons are half the price that I used to pay while I was in Asia, and so salmons always get on top of my shopping list. Usually whenever I go to my favourite supermarket, Sainsbury's, I absent-mindedly reach out to the seafood rack and grab two packs of skinless and boneless salmon (although later on I find that with a cheaper price, I can get a boneless but not skinless salmon).

Cheese, although is nothing particularly new to me, is pretty new when suddenly the supermarket has one aisle dedicated to them! I know Mozzarella and Cheddar, but I have no idea what Gouda or Leicester cheese are when I first arrived in the UK! So I have been doing so many cheese tasting (on my own), and I found tastes that I like and tastes that I would avoid as well. One of the cheeses that I will be using in this recipe is the black-peppered cheese, which I like because of the hot pepper sensation. The cheese is mild and not that matured and thus it will melt away beautifully when steamed.

I have a huge passion for Teriyaki sauce too, because I believe Teriyaki sauce is one of the sauces that I encountered when I first started learning to cook by myself in Singapore. This recipe is hugely influenced by my mom, who loves everything simple, tasty and homemade-y. Kudos to her for inspiring so many recipes that you will find in the one by two kitchen's album.

Oh and if anyone realises - I grew up in a place where 5-in-a-day was very encouraged and thus I tried incorporating a lot of them (except for the carbs, because to be honest I am an avid South-Beach Dieter).

Please note that a steamer will be needed, as well as a rounded bowl or a bowl to be used in the steamer.

Ingredients:

1. One approximately 250 gram fillet of salmon, skinless and boneless (boneless but not skinless is acceptable too)
2. Lettuce (preferably round lettuce)
3. White cup mushrooms (approximately 4)
4. Spring onions (1 or 2)
5. One slice of black-peppered cheese
6. Teriyaki sauce (preferably Kikoman)

How to Prepare:

1. Arrange a bed of lettuce leaves on the base of the rounded bowl
2. Slice the salmon fillet to around 5 or 6 chunky cubes, and arrange them on the bowl
3. Arrange the white cup mushrooms, alternating them with the salmon fillet (purely for aesthetic reason)
4. Chop the spring onions and sprinkle them above the salmon and the mushrooms
5. Pour teriyaki sauce over the bowl, around one and a half round of pouring will be sufficient
6. If you like it spicy, pour over chilli powders on top of the bowl
7. Put the bowl to the steamer and after the water boils - give 8 to 10 minutes or until the salmon turns opaque and the water from the steamer has condensed to the bowl and mixed with the teriyaki sauce to create a soup-like mixture
8. Place the cheese over the dish, steam for around 3 minutes or until the cheese is melted
9. Carefully move the bowl out of the steamer and serve warm

NOTE about salmons: salmon's skins will be easily removed once they are cooked - so don't sweat over it!

LOVE. the one by two kitchen.