Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: My tiny kitchen

ET has been out of town for business for two weeks and when he’s away, grilled sandwiches are my top dinner picks. The weather in Vancouver is finally warming up and while day-dreaming a delicious Italian salad with fresh mozzarella, hot house tomatoes and basil, I thought of turning the salad into a sandwich! Wait, there is something wrong with this idea: there will be no meat in the sandwich!!! After a moment of panic, I thought of including a few slices of Calabrese salami in the sandwich. The sandwich was phenomenal; it tasted so good that I feel sorry for myself of not having thought of it earlier. The spicy and rich flavour of the salami was the perfect meat and it perfectly complimented the fresh mozzarella. Who says day-dreaming cannot be productive huh?

To make two sandwiches you will need:

- 1 hot house tomatoes, cut into slices
- A few basil leaves

- 1 fresh mozzarella, cut into slices
- 4 pieces of your favourite type of bread

- A few slices of Calabrese salami
- Mayonnaise
- Mustard
- Margarine

For each sandwich:

1. On one slice of bread, spread mayo on one side. On the second slice of bread, spread mustard on one side.
2. Put basil, tomatoes, mozzarella and salami on the bread with mayo. Place the other slice of bread on top, with mustard side down.
3. Spread margarine on the top and bottom of the sandwich.
4. Place the sandwich into a non stick pan. Using medium heat, brown one side of the sandwich with the pan covered, which takes about 2 minutes. Turn the sandwich over and brown the other side with pan covered for 1 minute.

Oh by the way, I must warn you this is a messy sandwich. Eating this sandwich is like eating a really juicy burger loaded with lots of add-ons, you will make a mess with the juice dripping all over your hands, the table and if you are unlucky, even on your clothes. Every bite is worth the mess though. I should make ET one when he comes back. He has been having butter chicken for many nights, which he really enjoyed, but some western food would be a nice change for him

Location: My tiny kitchen

A mixed green salad with chanterelle and shitake mushrooms, jumbo scallops and pistachios.

I love mushrooms. From the ordinary everyday button mushroom to the fancy and insanely expensive black or white truffle, I cannot think of a kind that I don’t like. My favourite way to prepare them is to make them into a ragout, which is just a fancy term for sauteing the mushrooms with garlic, shallots, a small amount of stock or wine and cook until all the liquid has been reduced. Most mushrooms have a lot of flavour; the reduction simply intensifies and enhances the great flavour. Sometimes I serve the ragout as a side-dish to compliment a piece of perfectly seared steak, other times I put them on a patty to make a juicy mushroom hamburger. When ET and I want to have a light meal (yes, sometimes we do too!), I would mix up a plate of greens with the ragout. I’m not much of a salad eater, but when the salad has mushrooms, I can easily finish a plate

This recipe serves 2 people.

- 10 medium-sized shitake mushrooms
- 10 medium-sized chanterelle mushrooms (or hedgehog if chanterelle is not in season)
- 30 pistachios, ready-to-eat, shells removed
- 4 jumbo scallops
- Mixed greens (as much as you like)
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- balsamic vinegar
- extra virgin olive oil
- sherry

1. Rinse the mushrooms. Remove the stalk of the shitake. Cut off the tip of the chanterelle stalks. Cut the mushrooms into pieces. You don’t need to cut them too small because they will shrink after they are cooked.

2. Heat a pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil. Saute the garlic. Put in the mushrooms. Put in 1/2 tsp of salt, black pepper and 3 tbsp of sherry. Let the mushroom cooked until all liquid has been reduced.

3. Using a paring knife, score criss-cross marks on the top and bottom of each scallop. Season the scallops with salt and pepper. Coat them with cornstarch, dust off excess. In a pan, put in 1 tbsp of butter. Once the butter has melted, place the scallops into the pan. Let the scallops seared over high heat for one minute for each side. After both sides have been seared to golden brown, cover the pan for 1.5 minutes and lower the heat to medium. The trick to have perfectly seared scallops is to not to move them too much during searing. The time noted here cooks the scallops to medium-well. If you want to cook the scallops fully, let them sit in the covered pan for 1 minute longer.

4. In a large bowl, put in 1/2 tsp of mustard. Put in 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar. Using a whisk, whisk in 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Once the olive oil has been completely incorporated with the vinegar, whisk in another 1 tbsp of olive oil. When the oil has been incorporated, whisk in another 1 tbsp. In the end, you will get a dressing that is an emulsion of olive oil and vinegar. Whisking the olive oil one tablespoonful at the time ensures the success. If you have more greens, you can make more dressing by using more vinegar and olive oil, as long as you follow the ration of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil.

5. Toss the greens in the dressing.

6. To assemble: place the greens on a plate. Add the mushroom ragout on top of the greens. Place the scallops on the salad and sprinkle pistachios all over it.

If rabbits can lay eggs, would their eggs look like this?

Okay, these are just hard-boiled chicken eggs – I know I can’t fool ya! They look cute, aren’t they? Kids would probably like them. These hard-boiled eggs were shaped in a rabbit mold, which my best friend L gave me as a souvenir from her trip to Taiwan. Asian cities are filled with these cute stuff. Every time I visit Asia I would discover something new. These egg molds are one of their latest hot items:

In addition to rabbits, these molds also come in Teddy bears, fishes etc, you get the idea. I wanted to have some fun for Easter and now besides painting or dying eggs, I can also make them into animal shapes. Thanks to you L

The steps of making these eggs are relatively simple. After the eggs have been cooked and while they are still warm, I remove the shells, put them into the molds, let the molds sit in a bowl of cold water and viola, they are now rabbits.

Happy Easter, everyone!