Little House | Food & Photo Blog

The Summer Palace

Kokotaru — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:56:58 +0000

The KunMing lake was all frozen.

The main gate to enter the Summer Place

Roads outside leading to the main gate.

It was very windy that morning. I almost got frozen from toes to head.

Though it was windy and very cold, the sky was still deeply blue with golden sunlight.

Rocks with special structure, which inspires a lot of imagination of old time’s scholars, were used popularly in houses of middle class people, as a way to show the wealthiness.

One stunning spot.

This small path with many trees adored me.

One curved path.

The world’s longest corridor.

Kunming lake was all frozen.

Standing on the frozen lake.

Trip to the Great Wall

Trip to the Great Wall

Kokotaru — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:39:04 +0000

We were absent from our blog for the last 10 days as we went on our honey moon trip to China. It was a very wonderful trip with lots of interesting stories to tell.

China, for so long, has been mentioned with many world’s largest or longest or greatest heritages. This was the first time we traveled to China and also the first time we traveled with a tourist agency as we were so busy with the preparations of our wedding and unable to prepare for a free and easy trip, as we often did before.

There are so so many interesting and informative facts about Chinese history, culture and people, which I couldn’t tell all at a time. There is only one thing I must say for sure: China is worth visiting.

Now it’s time to share some photos we took while visiting the Great Wall – in the suburb of Beijing capital.

No related posts.

Mulled pears with ginger and brandy

Kokotaru — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:33:07 +0000

This has been my very very new experience: pears cooked in red wine and flavored with spices. Though I don’t drink much and very often, but I like wine. I feel excited whenever I try a glass of wine and it tastes good. I’ve never read much about wine and I criticize the quality of wine based solely on my taste and liking. But I do hope when conditions allow, I will learn more about wine and wish to experience the varieties of wine more deeply and widely.

Normally I don’t like eating pears, maybe because the taste is not to my liking. Even when I make cakes with pears, I often don’t feel very interested in eating. When I see pears look so good at markets, I will buy some as my husband loves them. This time I bought some small pears then I decided to try this dessert, which I’ve observed in many websites on the Internet. I followed the recipe in one of my cookbooks titled "Guilt-free desserts" – a collection of low-fat desserts. Then, what I liked most was not the pears but the syrup made from red wine which was enhanced with brandy and other spices.

I toasted some pistachios for decoration purpose and for adding texture to the dish. The pear was very tender and the flavor of wine was very deep, it was absorbed a lot into the pears, which made the pears very special in taste.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

- 300ml (1 1/4 cup) red wine

- 70g sugar

- 1 cinnamon stick

- 3 clove pieces

- grated zest of half an orange

- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger

- 4 pears with stems

- 1 tbs brandy

- toasted nuts for decoration

- whipped cream, to serve (optional)

Method:

- Put all the ingredients except the pears, brandy and nuts into a large pan. Heat slowly until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for 5 minutes.

- Peel the pears, leaving the stems on. Arrange them upright in the pan, cover and simmer for about 40-45 minutes until they are tender.

- Gently transfer the pears into serving bowls or dishes.

- Boil the syrup until it thickens and reduces. Cool slightly, then add the brandy and strain over the pears.

- Decorate with toasted nuts and serve with whipped cream if you prefer.

Lemon risotto with saffron

Kokotaru — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:46:17 +0000

I first heard of saffron when I watched TV shows on cooking competitions, seeing great chefs using saffron as special spice in their dish. I was so curious about these tiny red threads and I searched for more information about them. Then I decided to buy a box of saffron threads. It was rather expensive for a small box of around 50g, but each time only a small number of threads are used, so I think it is quite reasonable and that I will not finish a box like this too soon.

This risotto is the first dish I cooked with saffron, so it’s my first experience. The saffron made the risotto a yellowish color, which turned out to be so nice. The risotto was creamy with chewy texture of rice grains and the gentle flavor of lemon. I hardly realized the flavor of the saffron as it was too gentle. I hope to try saffron in another dishes soon.

The risotto was easy to eat with lemony flavor and taste. It’s not very rich yet creamy with fragrant parmesan cheese.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

- 1 lít (4 cups) vegetable stock

- 50g butter

- 1 onion, diced

- 15i saffron threads

- 275g risotto rice (arborio rice or short-grain rice)

- 155g asparagus spears or sweet pea pods

- 2 tbs lemon juice

- 80g grated Parmesan

- salt, pepper

- extra butter, to fry vegetables

- crispy potato chips (optional)

Cooking:

- Simmer the vegetable stock over low heat throughout the cooking process.

- Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add onion and saffron, stirring quickly until the onion is tender. Add the rice and stir to coat evenly with butter.

- Add 250ml (1 cup) stock, stirring frequently until the stock is absorbed. Add 1 more cup of stock, repeat the process until the stock is used up and the rice is just al dente. The rice grains should not be broken and mushy.

- Stir in the lemon juice, grated parmesan, season with salt and pepper.

- Cook the asparagus spears or sweet pea pods in boiling water until just tender. Drain. Melt little butter in a frying pan, add the asparagus/sweet peas, season with salt, then cook for about 1 minute.

- Serve the risotto with fried veggies and potato chips (if using).

Lemon bars

Kokotaru — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:51:03 +0000

It’s been quite a time I haven’t cooked or baked anything to update this blog. I was too busy preparing my wedding and I just cooked simple dishes for meals.

In Vietnam, it is a tradition that the wife follows the husband when she gets married to him and the new couples stay in the same roof with the husband’s parents. This is usually a must if the husband is the oldest child as he does the responsibility of looking after the parents when they get older. Nowadays, unlike in the past, each family has only one or two children, and after years of working, parents are able to build or buy a house which is large enough to be lived by two or three generations. It is also a fact that young couples prefer living on their own so that they have more freedom. Some are well-off and they can buy a new house to live there right after their marriage, some are willing to rent a place. Either way has pros and cons. My parents-in-law wish to have us stay with them for the beginning so that we have a chance to know one another more, and to strengthen the family bonds.

In the first place I wanted to rent a house and we would live and work on our own. Then my husband persuaded me into living together with his family, who is also my family now, so that everyone gets to understand the others more. His biggest wish is that I can get along with his family and that I can feel like home when I stay here. So now, his family is my family. Everyday I cook in my mother-in-law’s kitchen and things are going on very fine.

Those are some words about my new life. My new family are very open about my baking. My parents and brother-in-law love my baking products in many ways, and they are often eager to my new baked goods. Now there are more people to try my baked stuffs, to give me more comments and feedback, to give me more reasons to be in the kitchen making something good.

I love lemon the very first time I made lemon tart. These lemon bars resemble lemon tart for the most part. This time I followed a new recipe in the Taste of Home magazine, with some changes to the ingredients.

Ingredients: (one 8” square pan)

* Crust:

- 113g unsalted butter, softened

- 45g caster sugar

- 125g all-purpose flour

* Filling:

- 130g caster sugar

- 2 eggs

- 3 tbs lemon juice

- 2 tbs all-purpose flour

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

* Icing sugar to dust the cake

Method:

- Preheat the oven to 350F (177C).

- In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the flour until blended.

- Press the dough onto the ungreased pan, bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges are lightly brown.

- Meanwhile, combine the sugar, eggs, lemon juice, flour and baking powder in a bowl and beat until frothy. Pour this mixture over the baked crust.

- Bake for another 10-15 minutes until set and the filling is lightly brown on the surface. Remove the pan from the oven to cool completely on a wire rack. Sprinkle with icing sugar, then cut into squares.

An important and happy event to annouce

Kokotaru — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:17:16 +0000

Dear friends who have been visiting our Little House blog so far,

You might have wondered what have happened to us recently that caused us unable to update our blog regularly as we used to. Yes, the reason was we were busy preparing our Wedding. The wedding party took placed last Monday, 7 December, right here in Hanoi, Vietnam.

We are happy to announce that my fiance and I are husband and wife now. In preparation for this wedding, we had a lot of work to do. Instead of using all services, we tried to do ourselves as much as we could as we understood the values and meanings of things that altogether made a memorable wedding.

We had our friends take pre-wedding photos of us and my husband did the editing and designing the album, and we brought them to the album-making service.

You can view our two pre-wedding albums from these links:

http://kokotaru.com/photo/NTU_Wedding_Album/

http://kokotaru.com/photo/HN_Wedding_Album/

Photos of our wedding day can be viewed on my Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/linhihi?ref=profile#/album.php?aid=2042163&id=1066881516&ref=mf

We delay our honeymoon until Christmas. During this time, we still have lots of post-wedding stuffs to do. Of course I will return to my new kitchen, at my parents-in-law’ home, and make good dishes, then share them in my blog, as usual.

We thank you for all the supports we have been receiving from you all so far.

Fresh tomato soup

Kokotaru — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:52:46 +0000

Ripe tomatoes are so easy to be made into simple yet delicious soup. I followed the recipe in my cookbook of Party Food and Appertizers. In fact the recipe calls for sun-dried tomato paste so that the soup has intense flavor. However, I didn’t have that kind of tomato paste so I went ahead using normal tomato paste. The soup was still tasty though I wondered how the authentic taste would be like.

We can choose to cook with either chicken stock or vegetable stock, and I picked vegetable stock to get a real fresh and vegetarian soup. I made the toasted cheese croûte with baguette slices and grated Parmesan cheese.

Ingredients (serves 6)

- 1.3-1.6kg ripe tomatoes

- 400ml (1 2/3 cups) chicken or vegetable stock

- 3tbs (45ml) tomato paste (use sun-dried tomato paste for more authentic taste)

- 2-3 tbs balsamic vinegar

- 2-3 tsp caster sugar

- small handful of basil leaves

- salt and ground black pepper

- toasted cheese

croûtes

, to serve

Method:

- Peel off the skins and quarter the tomatoes. Put them in a large, heavy pan and pour over the chicken or vegetable stock. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the tomatoes are thickened.

- Stir in the tomato paste, vinegar, sugar and basil. Season with salt and pepper, then cook gently, stirring for 2 minutes. Process the soup in a blender or food processor, then return the soup to the pan to reheat slightly.

- Serve the soup hot with toasted cheese croûtes.

Red velvet cake balls

Kokotaru — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:20:20 +0000

I felt in love with red velvet cake the first time I made it, which was more than a year ago. So far I’ve re-made it several times, following the recipe on Joy of Baking website, for my home parties. Most my friends loved it as I did.

This time, I used the same recipe for making red velvet cake, but I made them into cake balls dipped into melted chocolate, and I seemed to get double joyfulness from eating these cake balls. They are delicious as the same red velvet cake plus the bitter-sweetness of chocolate. The chocolate coating, after being chilled in the fridge, became hard and they made cracking sound in the mouth. I love that experience when eating these cute cake balls. I just thought they were now more perfect to invite friends who visit our home, offering some interesting surprise with these cake balls.

The cake, after being baked and cooled completely, are put in the fridge for one day. After that I took them out, broke them into crumbles with hands. I made the cream cheese frosting the same day I baked the cake and also chilled it in the fridge, now I mixed the cream cheese into the cake crumbles until the mixture got very incorporated. Then it was possible to model into small balls.

I set a bowl of chopped semi-sweetened chocolate in simmering water while I dipped the cake balls into the melted chocolate. After I finished dipping all the cake balls, I chilled them in the fridge overnight. It takes time until you can sit down and enjoy these cake balls, but they are really worth your time and effort.

Recipe of red velvet cake can be found here. As usual, I always reduce the sugar suggested in the original recipe as I prefer my cakes less sweet.

Sweetcorn fritters

Kokotaru — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:34:33 +0000

It’s been very cold in Hanoi these days, and I felt like having something hot and crispy, not minding if it is greasy as any dish of this kind is so suitable for these days’ weather. And it is greater to enjoy a bowl of this sweetcorn fritters with my hubby while watching our favorite movies.

It only needs a little preparation in advance for the fritter batter should stand in the fridge for several hours before you can combine it with sweetcorn kernels, then your fritters will taste so good. I followed the recipe from the book "Professional Cooking" by Wayne Gisslen. However, as it is high in calories and fat, I do not suggest to have these fritters often, especially when we just sit and relax as couch-potatoes.

Ingredients: (serves 2-3)

- 1 egg, beaten

- 85ml milk

- 85g plain flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/6 tsp salt

- 1 tsp sugar

- 120g sweet corn kernels

- cooking oil

Method:

- Whisk together the egg and milk.

- Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl. Then add to the egg mixture and whisk until smooth. Put the batter in the fridge for several hours.

- Fold in the corn kernels.

- Drop tablespoons of the corn mixture into hot oil to deep-fry until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper.

Onion and leek tartlets

Kokotaru — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:06:25 +0000

My first time making savory tart – however, i wished I had baked them a bit longer so that they got more brown, which would have offered better flavor. Anyway, I could say it was a success for the first time as these tartlets not only looked cute but also tasted flavorful.

I got the recipe in the cookbook of party food collection, one of my reliable cookbooks from which I’ve followed many good recipes.

Ingredients: (serves 6)

* Tart shell:

- 175g (1 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour

- 75g (6 tbs) cold butter

- 1 egg yolk

- 30-45ml (2-3 tbs) cold water

- 1/2 tsp salt

* Filling:

- 25g (2 tbs) butter

- 1 onion, thinly sliced

- 1/2 tsp dried thyme

- 450g leek, thinly sliced

- 50g Gruyère cheese, grated

- 3 eggs

- 300ml light cream

- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

- salt, pepper

Method:

* Tart shell:

- Sift the flour into a bowl and add the butter, rub with hands until the mixture resembles crumbles.

- Whisk together the egg yolk, water and salt, then add to the flour bowl, mix with hands until the dough forms a round ball. Cover with cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

- Prepare some small tart tins, and grease them with butter.

- Roll out the dough into 3mm thin sheet, cut into small rounds and press to the tart tins. Prick the bottom of the shells with a fork, then chill for another 30 minutes.

- Preheat the oven to 190C (375F).

- Blind bake the tart shells (by covering them with aluminum foil and filling with beans, peanuts or rice). Bake for 6-8 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for 2 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

- Reduce the heat to 180C (350F).

* Tart filling:

- Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the onion and thyme, cook for 3-5 minutes. Next, add the leek and cook for 10 minutes or until veggies are tender. Divide this mixture to the tart tins, then sprinkle with grated cheese.

- Whisk together the eggs, cream and nutmeg, season with salt and pepper. Pour this mixture into the tart shells then bake them in the oven for 15-20 minutes until set.

- Serve warm.