Sweet & Sour Fish Fillets

It's been a while since I had time to actually share a new recipe on this blog. Since I have a little time on my hands today, I will share with all of you a quick recipe that's really easy to make and super yummy to eat. Sweet & Sour Fish, who doesn't like Sweet & Sour Fish, right? Both Kevin and I love this dish to bits. We would usually eat that with a huge plate of steaming white rice. Mmmm mmm mmmmmmmm :D Try this recipe, I hope you will like it as much as we do!

The first thing we must do is prepare the fish fillets. You can pretty much use any type of fish fillet for this dish but I would usually use catfish. It's really affordable and it taste awesome! Start off by cleaning the fillets. Then, add some pepper, garlic powder and salt to some flour and set it aside. Now, heat some oil in a large pan. Once its nice and hot, coat your fillets in flour and drop it into the oil. Remember not to overcrowd the pan.
You know that your fillets are ready once they turn golden brown. Take them out of the oil and set them aside on some kitchen towels.
Now, its time to make the sauce. It's really easy. All you need to do is mix some ketchup, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, white vinegar, sesame oil, sugar and pepper with some chicken stock. You can also add in some chili paste too if you like. Apart from that, I would also add in some syrup from the canned fruits that I would be using later on. There is really no fix ratio in all those ingredients. Some people like it really sour and some people like sweet. The best thing would be just to taste the mixture and continue to adjust the amount until you get the taste that you like. For me, I like it on the sweeter side. Once you are done with the sauce mixture, set it aside.
Alrighty, now we can put it all together. Start off by sauteing one large onion and one green pepper that has been cut into bite size pieces.
Then, add in a can of mixed tropical fruits. Remember to drain away the syrup before adding the fruits in. If you do not like mixed tropical fruits, you could also just use canned or fresh pineapples.
After sauteing the vegetables and fruits for a bit, add in the sauce mixture. Allow it to simmer until it comes to a boil. Then, add in some cornstarch that has been mixed with a little bit of water. This will help thicken up the sauce. Once the sauce has thicken, it's ready to be served. I would usually just add in my fish fillets into the sauce and give it a good mix. You could also place your fillets on a serving platter and pour the sauce over it. Either ways, it will be yummy! You can serve it with some steamed rice or if you like, you could even eat it with noodles. Try it out and let me know if you like it! :D

Insalata Caprese aka Caprese Salad

It's been a while since I shared any recipes with all of you, so I figured I'll just share something really quick and easy to make. This is the perfect summer time salad, when fresh tomatoes are in season. Insalata Caprese (or better known as Caprese Salad here in the States) originated from the region of Campania in Italy. An interesting fact that I found from Wikipedia is that this salad is sometimes called Insalata Tricolore, referring to the three colors of the Italian flag. Interesting. Anyways, I simply love this salad because it's really yummy to eat and really simple to make. It takes less than 10 minutes to put everything together. Here's how you make it.

Start off by washing a few large tomatoes. It's always good to choose the juicy ripe ones. Slice up the tomatoes and set them aside.

Next, you would need some fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese. Remove the cheese from it's packaging (it's usually sold, soaked in water) and slice it into pieces.

Then, it's time to put it all together. Arrange the tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves on a plate. Just alternate the tomatoes and cheese, with random basil leaves all over. Now, traditionally, one would just drizzle extra virgin olive oil on top and you are set to go. I changed it up a little and combined 1 part extra virgin olive oil to 1 part balsamic vinaigrette. Drizzle that over the salad and top it up with some freshly cracked black pepper and some salt. All done! Now, wasn't that easy? =)

Italian Sausage with Peppers & Onions

Yessss, I know I haven't been blogging for a while. Yesss, I know. In my past few posts, I said that I will be blogging more but I have yet to do that. Sooo, here's what I am going to do. I am going to pretend that there wasn't any break in my blogging and just carry on blogging like usual :P How's that? LOL! Anyways, it's been a while since I shared any recipes with all of you. So, here's a quick one that's really simple to make but super yummy to eat. I would make this on days when I am really lazy but still want something home made and hearty. Try it, this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Start off by browning 6 links (about 4 oz) of sweet Italian sausages in a large pan. If you like it spicy, you could use hot Italian sausages too. Make sure you brown all sides of the sausages. Once it's done, remove it from the pan and then set them aside.
Using the same pan, add in some green peppers and onions. You could also add in some yellow and red peppers too if you like.
After sauteing for a bit, season with some basil, oregano, black pepper and garlic powder. Then, add in a can of diced tomatoes. I used diced tomatoes that has been seasoned with Italian herbs but you can pretty much use just any regular diced tomatoes.
Mix the tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients then add in about half a cup of red wine. If you like, you could also use Marsala wine. Remember to try and get as much of the burnt bits off the bottom of the pan. You'll be surprised how much flavor that adds to the dish.
Give everything a good mix and return the sausages into the pan. Allow it to simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes, until all the sauce is reduced and it's good to go! How easy was that? I served that up with some penne pasta but you can pretty much serve it with anything. Pasta, rice, potatoes, Italian bread....anything that you like! Try it and let me know how it turns out! :D

Cornflake Honey Joy Cups

If you were to ask me what is the one thing that I really miss about spending Chinese New Year back home in Malaysia, I would have to say - THE FOOD! Of course I miss spending time with my family, extended family and my friends too but missing out on the CNY goodies always bums me out each year. This year, I tried making one of my all time favorite CNY treat, the Cornflake Honey Joy Cups! Boy, I really love those tiny cups of awesome! I never really tried making them and I always assumed that they were really difficult to make. After checking out a few recipes online, I realized that they are really simple to make. Here's how you make them!

Start off by melting about 90g of unsalted butter in a large pan. Then add in 4 large tablespoons of honey.
Stir the honey into the melted butter and allow it to come to a boil. Remember not to let it overcook, cause it burns easily. Once you see it bubbling, you can turn off the heat immediately.
Then, add in about 4 cups of cornflakes.
Gently fold in the cornflakes with the honey butter mixture. Just make sure that you coat all of the cornflakes evenly with the mixture.
Next, scoop the cornflakes into tiny little paper cups. This recipes makes about 60 mini cups.
Pop in the tray of cornflake cups into a preheated 325F oven for about 12-13 minutes. You know it's done once it turns golden brown.
Once you have taken out the tray from the oven, sprinkle on some nonpareils colored balls as decoration. Allow it to cool for a bit and it's ready to be served! Wasn't that easy? The smell of the cornflake cups were just simply intoxicating when it was baking in the oven. So so so good! Go ahead and try it. It's awesome!

Sage Sausage and Cranberry Stuffing

How can you make a holiday meal without making any stuffing? In my opinion, I feel that the stuffing completes the meal. It usually doesn't get to be in the limelight, unlike the turkey but Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the stuffing. So, I have saved the best for last. This is the final part in my four part series of simple Thanksgiving recipes. It's been fun sharing those recipes with you and I hope you will enjoy making them as much as I enjoyed sharing them with you.

This is another really simple but yummy recipe. Start off my melting 4 tablespoons of butter in a large pan. Then, crumble and cook 1 lbs of sage sausage until brown.
Next, add in approximately two cans (14.5 oz) of chicken broth.
Once the chicken broth comes to a boil, turn off the heat and add in one package of herb flavored stuffing. Gently fold in the stuffing into the broth and sausage mixture.
Finally, add in about 1 cup of dried cranberry and gently mix it into the stuffing mixture. Once, it is all evenly mixed, transfer the stuffing from the pan into a casserole dish. Then, cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil and pop it into a 325F oven for about an hour. There you go, another simple holiday recipe. Now, who says cooking for the holidays needs to be stressful? :D

Classic Green Bean Casserole

Here is another 'must have' on our holiday menu - the Classic Green Bean Casserole! You cannot go wrong with this recipe. It's really easy to make and it has become a staple in all of our holiday meals. It doesn't require many ingredients and it takes barely minutes to prep. Here's the recipe!

Start off by mixing 1/2 a cup of milk to 1 can of condensed mushroom soup. It doesn't HAVE to be Campbell's but I don't know, it always seem to taste better whenever I use Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup.
Then, add in a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce and some black pepper. I like how the Worcestershire sauce adds in a little kick to the entire dish.
Next, add in 4 cups of frozen cut green beans into a baking dish. Then, stir in the mushroom soup mixture. At this point, you can choose to stir in some fried onions if you like. I really love fried onions, so I would usually stir in some. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and pop it into a 350F oven for about 25 minutes.
After about 25 minutes (or once it starts bubbling), remove the baking dish from the oven and sprinkle on some fried onions. Pop it back into the oven (without the aluminum foil) for about 10 minutes. The green bean casserole is ready to be served once the fried onions are nicely browned. There you go, another super simple holiday favorite!

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Casserole

Firstly, I must apologize for the lack of updates. It's been a crazy few months for us and things are just beginning to get back to normal. I know I promised some easy to make Thanksgiving dinner recipes and so far, I have only shared the recipe for roast turkey. In the next couple of posts, I will be sharing with you recipes for some of our favorite sides. To get the ball rolling, here is the recipe for one of my all time favorite - the Sweet Potato Casserole. It's really yummy and the best part? It's also really simple to make! Here's how you make it.

Start off by cooking some sweet potatoes (or yams, depends on which part of the country you are from) in boiling water. Just leave the skin on. It's way easier to remove after it's cooked.
Once they are cooked and soft, take them out from the boiling water and remove the skin. The skin should just slide off without any problems. Be really careful though, cos those sweet potatoes can be HOT HOT HOT! Then, add in about 5 tablespoons of butter.
Mash the sweet potatoes with a potato masher. If you do not have a potato masher, you can just use a fork. It works just as well. Make sure that the butter is mixed evenly into the sweet potatoes.
Then, add in some maple syrup. I used pure dark amber maple syrup that we bought from Vermont but you can pretty much use any type of maple syrup that you like. Mix it into the sweet potato mixture.
Once you have mixed in the maple syrup, the sweet potato mixture should be smooth and creamy. If its not, then you would need to mash it a little bit more. Once your sweet potatoes have reached the desired consistency, transfer the sweet potato mixture into a baking dish.
Then, sprinkle on some chopped pecans or pecan halves. Make sure that your pecans are evenly distributed on the top of your casserole. Finally, cover the baking dish with aluminum foil. Pop the sweet potato casserole into a 350F oven. After about 30-35 minutes, remove the casserole from the oven and it's ready to be served! Now, wasn't that easy? Try it, I'm very sure that you will like it too!

Kevin's 'Not So Secret' Roast Turkey Recipe

I really do not understand why people make it seem so difficult, when it comes to roasting a turkey. From the way people talk, I used to think that it must be really difficult to roast a turkey. It wasn't until Kevin showed me how it's done (about eight Thanksgivings ago, when we first started dating :P) did I realize that it's really not that difficult at all. Really, it's no rocket science. Anybody can do it. In our household, Kevin is the one in charge of making the turkey. So, here's Kevin's 'not so secret' (cos we are sharing it with all of you, right?) roast turkey recipe.
If you have a frozen turkey, the most important thing you need to do is to remember to thaw it! Leave it breast side up in the refrigerator, with the wrapper unopened. It takes approximately 1 day of thawing for every 4 lbs of turkey. Once it's fully thawed, you would want to remove the neck and giblets from inside the cavity of the turkey. Some people would use it to make gravy but we would just throw it away. Come on, we don't have time to make our own gravy. We would just get it from a bottle :P Alritey, so once you have removed the neck and giblets, rinse the turkey through cold water and pat it dry. Then, cut up some apples and stuff it into the cavity. Kevin would also sometimes use oranges and/or cranberries with the apples, it really depends on what we have available at that time.
Now, the secret weapon in making the perfect roast turkey - OVEN BAGS! I personally feel that oven bags are the best. They keep the turkey all moist, juicy and once it's done, the meat practically falls off the bone. So, just shake about one tablespoon of flour in the oven bag to coat it, set it in a roasting pan and place the turkey in the bag. Tie up the bag with the ties that comes with the oven bag and you are done! Make sure the bag doesn't touch the turkey, cos it might stick to it while roasting. Also, remember to poke some holes in the bag, to allow the steam to escape while roasting.
Then, pop it into a preheated 350F oven. It takes approximately 2 1/2 hours to roast a 12 - 16 lbs turkey. However, we are going to set the timer for 2 hours.
After two hours, its time to make the glaze. Combine brown sugar with any type of soda. We would usually use Sierra Mist, Sprite or Ginger Ale but any type of soda works. Slowly add in the brown sugar in the soda, while stirring, until it thickens (the consistency should somewhat be like BBQ sauce).
Once the glaze is done, it's time to remove the turkey from the oven. At this point, it's not fully cooked yet. Just cut open the oven bag and brush on the glaze. You gotta be really careful when you open the oven bag. It's really hot and you do not want to burn yourself from all the steam.
After glazing the turkey, cover the entire turkey with aluminum foil and pop it back into the oven for another hour or so.
You can remove the turkey from the oven after an hour to check it's internal temperature. If it hits 180F, you are good to go. If not, then just pop it back into the oven for another 15 - 20 mins. Once it's done, allow the turkey to rest for a bit and it's ready to be served! Now, that wasn't so difficult, was it?

Spaghetti Hot Dogs

I found this fun and easy recipe online not too long ago and since it was Halloween (Yes, I knowwww! This is a very backdated post :P), I decided to try this recipe out. I must say that it was a hit! Everybody loves spaghetti and everybody loves hot dogs. So why not combine it together? For those of you with kids, I bet they will totally love it too! It's just fun to see spaghetti oozing out from hot dogs. I'm pretty sure this will get the mark of approval, even from the most fussy eater. So, here's how you make it.

When I say that it's an easy recipe, I am not kidding. It's really really easy to make. All you need is a box of spaghetti (you'll probably only need about half a box, if that), a pack of hot dogs and some pasta sauce.
Start off by cutting the hot dogs into smaller sections. If you like bigger pieces, you could also just cut the hot dogs into half. If you have smaller kids, you might want to cut it into quarters. It makes it easier for those tiny fingers.
Next, thread the spaghetti into the hot dogs. It's fairly easy to do. You can either thread it all the way through or you can just thread it half way. I tried both!
Now it's time to cook the spaghetti hot dogs! Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Then, just dump in the spaghetti hot dogs and allow it to cook until the spaghetti is al dente.
Once it's done, drain and its ready to be served. You can serve it with your favorite pasta sauce or eat it without any sauce. Some kids also like to dip it in ketchup. It's entirely up to you. Since it was Halloween, I drew on some eyes and mouth with a little mustard and the spaghetti hot dogs looks like little aliens, rising up from a sea of blood :P You should try this recipe, it's really easy to make and I'm pretty sure it will be a hit with the kids and even the not so little kids!