Month: July 2013

Gingery & Coconutty Granola

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Gingery & coconutty granola

You and I both know I absolutely love brunch. But during the week, it’s impossible to have brunch due to work and more often than not, I end up having a slice of toast with either peanut butter or vegemite and out of the door I went! But I really wanted to have something healthy and good in the morning to keep me full for most of the morning before lunch so I decided to make my own granola to go with yogurt! Mmmm (:

Granola with greek yogurt

I also wanted to try using something I’ve never used before, but has been on my mind for a while now – Molasses. A dark and viscous by-product of the refining of sugar cane. The health benefit of molasses is its high mineral content. It’s wheat, dairy, lactose, gluten and yeast free! It smells and tastes quite similar to gula melaka hehe I like it!

Molasses

It’s not as sweet as honey, but still makes the granola yummy! (: Had to take that risk, but so glad I did. hehe I tried baking a cake with it, but I think I probably used too much and the taste over took the whole cake, so I’m sticking to sugar for my cakes. haha Or honey! But for granola, it was perfect! hehe

IMG_6373-1

The best thing about this recipe? You could pretty much add what you love and it will still work! hehe I ransacked my whole pantry and took out everything I wanted and tossed it in the mix!  There were a few things I really wanted in my granola this time : toasted coconut and crystalised ginger! It was a combination I came across at the awesome Borough Market in London during my recent trip! hehe So here we go! (:

Gingery & Coconutty Granola (A Food Made With Love original recipe)

1 cup shredded coconut (toasted till brown, set aside)

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup slivered almonds

1 cup roughly chopped walnuts

1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 pistachios, roughly chopped

1/2 cup unsalted cashews, roughly chopped

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbs olive oil

3 tbs molasses

1 cup raisins

1 cup goji berries

shredded coconut (before toasting)

Toasted shredded coconut

Steps :

1) Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius. In a large bowl, place the rolled oats, mixed nuts and cinnamon. Give it a good toss to so that they are well combined.

2) In a small pot, heat the olive oil and molasses on low heat till smooth. Drizzle over the oats mixture and mix till well combined.

3) Pour the mixture on a line tray and bake for about 35-40 mins, stirring every 10 minutes.

4) Remove from the oven and allow it to cool slightly. Pour it back into the large bowl, and mix in the raisins and goji berries. Once the mixture is completely cooled, stir in the toasted coconut.

Gingery & coconutty granola

Enjoy on its own (it makes a great snack!) or with your favourite yogurt! (:

Food Made With Love Watermark 3 Black

PS: Did you notice the new logo for Food Made With Love? hehe Hope you guys like it and I just want to thank you for your continuous support and love for my posts! I won’t be here if not for you all, so thank you heaps! x

Have a great week ahead! Till the next post, remember to always cook and bake with love! 

Dry Mee Siam

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Dry Mee Siam

Good evening dear readers. I hope you’re having a great weekend so far! Mine has been really relaxing, trying out new recipes and cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It definitely felt good cooking and baking again after quite a long time! One of the things I tried is dry mee siam. hehe If you don’t know what mee siam is, it is a malaysian dish and is similar to fried rice vermicelli with lots of aromatics to make it flavourful and delicious! It’s usually comes with a gravy, but I do prefer the dry version. Every mouthful makes me nostalgic!

Dry mee siam

As my sister-in-law says, it brings the taste of home (有家的味道) ! I was quite worried about how it would turn out, but it was pretty good for a first timer! hehe And quite simple as well! Just blend all the aromatics together, fry, add stock, rice vermicelli, viola! Definitely something you can consider making during parties! I topped mine with prawns, fried beancurd, chinese chives and crispy fried shallots! But you can top it with anything you like, for meat lovers, you could shred some chicken in as well! heh So what are you waiting for? Give it a try!

Dry Mee Siam (adapted from Valee Belly & To Food With Luv)

1 packet of rice vermicelli (about 400-500g)

300g bean shoots

300g prawns, shelled and deveined

100g fried beancurd/ firm toufu, sliced and fried till golden brown

3 hard boiled eggs, cut into halves

10 stalks chinese chives, finely chopped, extra for garnish

2 tbs vegetable oil

2 cups chicken stock

2 tbs fish sauce

2 tbs tamarind paste

2 tsp brown sugar

ground white pepper

fried shallots

1 lime, cut into wedges

Aromatics / Spice blend : 

5 cloves of garlic

10 shallots

20g belachan

55g dried shrimps, soaked and drained

3 heap tbs sambal chilli

2 tbs fermented yellow beans/taucheo (I used crushed salted soya beans)

Blending the aromatics

Steps :

1) In a blender, place the garlic, shallots, belachan, dried shrimps, sambal chilli and fermented yellow beans. Blend till it becomes a fine paste.

Blended aromatics

2) In a heavy based frying pan or wok if you have one, heat the vegetable oil on high heat. Add the prawns and fry till its cooked through. Set it aside. Fry the blended aromatics for about 8-10 minutes, till fragrant. Remember to keep stirring it so that they do not burn.

3) Add the chicken stock, fish sauce, brown sugar and tamarind paste and bring the mixture to a boil, lowering the heat and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes.

4) Add the rice vermicelli and bean sprouts and mix well till well combined. Toss it well to make sure the rice vermicelli is well coated and the liquid is absorbed and almost dry. Add the chives and give it another good toss.

5) To plate, place some dry mee siam on the plate/bowl, top it with hard boiled eggs, fried beancurd, prawns, more chives, fried shallots and a wedge of lime. Remember the lime as it gives the dish a sourish and refreshing kick!

Dry Mee Siam

Now it’s time to sit down and enjoy! (: Hopefully you’ll love it as much as we did! Brought us straight back to Singapore hehe

Remember to always cook and bake with love! 

Going Healthy : Cauliflower Rice Salad

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Cauliflower rice salad

Hola dear readers! Obviously I still wish I am back in Barcelona. hehe Have you ever felt the need to cut down on food and eat better? After all the good food (and don’t get me started on the amounts haha) that I’ve eaten in Europe, I decided to try and eat a little healthier when we got back. The thing that has been going around alot these days is the Paleo diet. Don’t worry, I’m not on it! haha I, for one, cannot go through a diet for the life of me. Plus my dearest husband will never allow me to. He’s a firm believer of exercise and eating everything in moderation. hehe But there are a few recipes out there which caught my eye and I’ve written down in my recipes-to-try list! hehe One of which is the cauliflower rice!

Cauliflower rice

I was intrigued by the cauliflower rice ever since I’ve seen it on instagram  (follow me on @lianneelow). It’s not rice, but it’s cauliflower that is made to look like rice, and it’s absolutely delicious! hehe There are many different ways to make it and there’s no right or wrong way. The best thing about it is that you can flavour it any way you want! Absolutely anything that you fancy!

Cauliflower rice with dishes

I had mine two ways. One as a substitute for rice/quinoa (with dishes) and another in a salad! They both worked really well but I am addicted to the salad. Which is the recipe I’ll be sharing with you today. And trust me, even though you don’t intend to change your diet, this is something you definitely should try making! Plus, there’s no harm in having something healthy yes? hehe

Cauliflower Rice (Adapted from Nom Nom Paleo)

1 head of cauliflower (cut into small pieces)

3 shallots, finely sliced

1-2 tbs olive oil

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground coriander

A bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Freshly ground black pepper

cauliflower

Steps : 

1) In a food processor, pulse the cauliflower into the size of couscous or rice grains.

2) In a heavy-based pan, heat the olive oil and sautéed the finely sliced shallots until its soft and aromatic. When it’s softened, add the cauliflower and stir until it is well coated and mixed thoroughly.

3) Season the cauliflower rice with the garlic salt, ground ginger and ground coriander. Cover the pan and allow it to cook for 5-10 minutes. Season with freshly ground pepper and fold in the fresh coriander.

cauliflower rice salad

Cauliflower Rice Salad (Original recipe)

2 cups cauliflower rice

200-300g butternut squash, cubed

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 pint cherry tomatoes (250g, sliced into halves)

Juice of 1 lemon

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 can of chickpeas, drained

salt & pepper, to season

handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Steps :

1) On a lined baking tray, place the butternut squash and sprinkle paprika and salt. Drizzle some olive oil over. In a preheated oven (180 degrees celcius), bake the butternut squash for 15-20 minutes, or until the squash is tender. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

2) In a small bowl, emulsify the oilve oil with the lemon juice and set it aside.

3) In a large bowl, place the cauliflower rice, then top with the butternut squash, cherry tomatoes and season with salt & pepper. Drizzle the emulsified lemon juice and olive oil and add in the chopped coriander. Give it a good mix until well combined.

Cauliflower rice salad

4) Eat it by the spoonful or keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days.

my lunch

I had mine with some extra pine nuts and a hard boiled egg for some extra protein! hehe See, you can have it anyway you fancy!

Enjoy and remember to always cook and bake with love! 

Tall Timber

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Tall Timber

I’m back, I’m back, I’m back! I’m finally back from my travels around Europe! Hope all of you have been well and hooray it’s the weekend!! Can’t believe three weeks have zoomed past that quickly, but it’s really good to be back! The one thing I really miss is having my weekend brunches and my chai soy lattes! I don’t think I’ve had as much coffee in a year as when I was in Europe! and of course, I’m so gald to be back blogging and sharing with all of you again! hehe

One thing I really love about being in Melbourne is the new cafes popping up almost every other week! hehe One that opened just over a month now is Tall Timber. I read about them on Broadsheet and saw instagram pictures of their noms and decided that I needed to make a trip down, pronto!

Tall Timber

Add : 60 Commercial Road, Prahan Vic 3181

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Tall Timber

I went there when it was 2 weeks young, and already there was a long queue and the small cosy cafe was packed and buzzing! Not surprising though, as they were the same talented gentlemen behind the establish Coin Laundry & Station Street Trading. Seeing the crowd made me very excited and just can’t wait to see what they had on the menu.

Latte and Chai Soy Latte

The Mr and I had our usual cuppas – large latte for him; chai soy latte for me. Warm and definitely comforting! There’s just something about chai lattes for me. I can’t get enough of it! hehe The coffee beans are roasted on site and are from Niccolo. The Mr liked the blend, smooth and not overly rich. It’s so robust that you can even smell the aroma even before you walk through their doors!

My Mr

My brunch date (: Every weekend.

Tall Timber

Now for the food! I was really drawn in to the breakfast board but sadly, they ran out of it that afternoon. But something else caught my attention.

Portobello mushrooms

The portobello mushrooms with goats curd, sprinkled with almonds and drizzled with balsamic was mouth-wateringly good! How beautiful does it look on the plate? The colours just pop! hehe I’m not one who like goats cheese, but this goats curd wasn’t too strong, in fact it was creamy and smooth. If you know me, you know I love textures in my food, and this one has them all! Soft, crunchy, chewy! With sweet, tangy, salty and peppery all in one bite! Mmmm! (: Definitely a dish I highly recommend!

Bean cassoulet with pulled pork and chorizo

While I had the vego option, the mr needed his protein and meat! hehe So he decided on the bean cassoulet with pulled pork, chorizo, goats cheese and a perfectly poached egg! Perfect amount of spice from the chorizo, the pork was tender and the dish on a whole packed a punch! hehe

Our breakfast

Tall Timber is definitely a place we will return soon! Gotta get that breakfast board! (: Friendly staff, great food. And if you’re around the area and you like your coffee, this is definitely a place to visit, even for one on the go!

Latte

So thinking of where to go this weekend? Go visit them and let me know what you think! I’m sure you’ll be on the same page as I am. heh Have a great weekend everyone! (:

Remember to always bake and cook with love!

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