Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: My Tiny Kitchen

This is my version of Pain Au Chocolat. Traditionally, Pain Au Chocolat is a buttery croissant filled with gooey chocolate. Since it takes about 8 hours to make a crossiant, this is my simplified version which uses baguette to sandwich a generous amount of shaved chocolate. I usually make this on weekend mornings. Next to my porcini mushroom scrambled eggs, this is the sweet version of my perfect breakfast.

Take a loaf of baguette and cut it into 1/2 inch slices. Because this is a sweet sandwich, I usually make one sandwich per person.

Spread a generous amount of butter on both sides of the baguette.

I generally use Lindt’s chocolate when I bake. I like that it has a good quality for a reasonable price.

In this recipe, use an equal amount of dark and semi-sweet chocolate. Using both dark and semi-sweet chocolate gives the sandwich a good balance of sweet and bitter.

For each sandwich, you need 1 square of dark and 1 square of semi-sweet chocolate.
Using a chef knife, “shave” the chocolate into thin stripes.

Place a generous amount of chocolate on one side of the buttered baguette.

Heat a non stick pan until it is warm.
Place the sandwiches into the pan.
Reduce to medium heat, toast the bread for 1 minute.
Turn to the other side, and toast for another minute.

After the sandwich is plated, wait for them to cool down a little, then sprinkle them with icing sugar.

You can see how the chocolate is oozing out of the sandwich. The bread is crunchy and the chocolate is silky smooth; it has a very interesting texture contrast. The butter not only binds everything together, it gives the sandwich a very buttery taste.

Location: My tiny kitchen

Have you ever had shrimp toasts at dim sum? Or do you remember when was the last time you see shrimp toast on the menu at a HK cafe? When I was small, shrimp toast was a common item at a HK cafe or sometimes, it’s the special item of the day served at dim sum. I don’t when it happened, but somehow shrimp toast just disappeared from any menu. I miss shrimp toasts. To ease my longing, I started making shrimp toasts at home. I failed the first time. The toasts were soggy and oily. I failed in my second attempt as well. The oil was too hot and the toasts all got burned. That didn’t stop me and I finally succeeded after a few more attempts. However, I still want to improve this recipe further. My next try would be to bake the toasts in the oven after they have been quickly dipped in the hot oil. But until then, you can try out this recipe and reunite your lost memory of those crunchy toasts.

This recipe gives you 12 mini shrimp toasts.
You will need 10 medium size tiger prawns.
Peel the shell off the prawns.
Using a pairing knife, cut a slit on the back of the prawns and remove the intestine.
Wash the prawns and towel dry.

You can use a food processor for this step but since I don’t have a food processor (I can’t believe this myself!), I do the chopping with my good old knife.

Dice the prawns until it is almost a paste. I like to leave some prawns in chunks because I like biting into chunks of prawns when I eat my toasts.

To marinate, use:
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of corn startch
A dash of sesame oil
1 tsb of Japanese cooking wine
1/4 tsp of hot paprika
1 tbsp of chives
1 tbsp of parsley
Freshly ground black pepper

Mix the marinate into the prawns until everything is incorporated. To mix, use a fork or chopsticks and turn in one circular direction. Mixing the prawns this way will bind them together.

You cannot use the mixture right away. Put the mixture into the fridge for at least 3 hours until it is set.

The next step is to prepare the toasts.
Turn the oven to 300 F.
Take 3 pieces of white or whole wheat bread, trim off the sides.
Cut the bread diagonally so that you get 4 pieces of mini triangular toasts.

Line a baking sheet and put the mini toasts on the sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes until the toasts are hard but their colour is still white.

Spread the shrimp paste on the toasts.

In a 3 quart pan, fill the pan up to 1/3 full with vegetable oil. Remember, when you are frying, you must not fill the pan more than half; otherwise, the oil will overflow during frying and trust me, that’s a very bad thing to have

The temperature is the key when frying. Using a candy thermometer, check to make sure the oil is heated up to 300 F. If you fry the toasts with oil that’s hotter than this, then they will burn. If you fry with oil that’s colder, then the toasts will be too greasy as they will soak up too much oil during frying.

When the oil reaches 300 F, drop in the toasts. Try not to be greedy and fry only a few toasts at a time so they have room to “swim” around in the oil.

Fry each toast for one minute or until golden brown.

As soon as the toasts get out of the oil, season them with salt.

There, the finished product that eases my craving. The bread is crunchy and the shrimp paste tasted, well, just like shrimps

Location: My tiny kitchen

As the ultimate meat lover, I adore beef, and to me eating steaks is the best way to enjoy beef. On weekend evenings, I would cook a couple of steaks for me and ET, and we’ll open a bottle of red wine to go with them. The key to cooking good steaks is in getting the best grade of beef you can find. Once you have the good beef, then you are half way there. I like cooking my steaks in a simple way. This recipe will give you some really well seared meat in 5 minutes. Enjoy the cow!

I usually get my steaks from Safeway. I don’t go to just any Safeway, I go to the Safeways that have a butcher counter where you can get triple A beef. Their price is a little higher than other grocery stores but the quality makes up for the cost.

ET and I love ribeye steaks. Although they are not as tender as tenderloins, but their flavour is wonderful. We almost always get ribeyes. I always pick the pieces that have the most marble.

The only seasonings I put on my steaks are salt and pepper. Put in a generous amount of freshly ground pepper and salt on both sides. I’m using some Fleur de Sel here.


The second key to cooking good steaks is in timing. It’s all about the time. Heat a pan until it is very hot, which takes about 2 minutes. Put in oil. Put in the steaks.
Sear one side on high heat for 2 minutes.
Cover the pan.
Turn the heat down to medium and cook for one more minute.
Flip the steaks, sear the other side for 2 minutes over medium heat and with the pan covered during the whole time.

If you are using a gas stove, this will give you a medium rare doneness for an one inch thick steak. If you are cooking a thicker steak, such as the tenderloins, then you will need to cook each side for longer. Just like everything else in life, the best way to learn to control the doneness is by cooking more steaks.


There, my perfectly medium rare ribeyes. They were so succulent and flavourful. Yum.