My First Tagine

I am not sure what about my trip to Jamaica inspired me to make tagine! Perhaps it was the fairly mediocre food there (minus the beef carpaccio at Half Moon's Il Giardini) that inspired me to get into the kitchen and start trying out some new recipes!

I got this recipe from my friend, Mara, who travels to work with me everyday. She got it from a book she picked up in Morocco- "The Scent of Orange Blossoms" by Danielle Mammane & Kitty Morse.

Loved the buttery taste of the root veggies and the tender beef after they had been roasted so long! Even though it's time intensive, it's just the cook time that takes time- the prep time is extremely minimal.

Next time, I want to spice it up a bit and will add harissa, cinnamon, some honey, some saffron...who knows? You can throw anything in- a sweet potato- whatever...Make it with beef, lamb or chicken and it will be ready to serve to Darren Farber in no time.

Tagine of Beef with Carrots & Turnips (Serves 4)

3 Tbsp olive oil
1.5 lbs boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 lb carrots, peeled and cut into 3 inch sticks
1 lb small turnips, peeled and quartered
2 onions, quartered
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 cup water
2 tomatoes, peeled and seeded
10 sprigs cilantro, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 350. In an ovenproof pan (thank god for my Creuset Dutch oven!), heat oil over medium heat. Add meat and cook until brown 5-6 minutes, turn occasionally. Cover the meat with carrots, onions and turnips.

In a small bowl, combine s&p, ginger and turmeric with the water. Pour over the veggies. Seal tightly with aluminum foil and bake until meat is tender, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours.

Sprinkle the tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic over the veggies. Continue to bake uncovered without disturbing the veggies until the tomatoes are cooked for 20-30 minutes.

Serve hot on some couscous to soak up all the delicious juices.

Freeze the rest for a night when you're too lazy to cook!

Stay tuned- I have big plans for Lebanese moussaka and Zingerman's mushroom and barley soup! I also just bought an ice cream maker (thanks little sister for my Williams-Sonoma gift card!) and am so excited to use it!

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II test shots

yeah guys, i got this lens yesterday and I'm happy. because its a fast aperture lens ( not as fast as 50L/50 f/1.4 USM ).
keke... i was cursing this lens like tomorrow because its a 5 group-aperture lens.
It produce a wondering pentagon-shaped bokeh. I don't like the point but the price is damn cheap. I got it for Rm300 with a canon uv filter( normal, non B+W or what ).

well, I'm happy with it at least.
Bigger poison will come sooner, hope myself can take the poison ( EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM )

heres the photo.
Canon EOS 1000D
EF 50mm f/1.8 II @ f/2.2

"Ming" light trail

This photo is dedicated to Ming yee, a friend who play SEA-Maple story.
photo taken by Canon EOS1000D with kit lens 18-55 IS.
Bulb mode shutter.

Birds of a Feather

Traditionally, our family gets together every Christmas Eve for our yuletide meal. Aunties, uncles, children, parents and grandparents all under one roof devouring the spoils of the Christmas season. Then some years ago, my cousins started a new tradition: the Cousins Christmas Dinner, which, unlike the repast that our older relatives create, is always a little more decadent.

There's always good wine, lots of red meat and some manner of foie gras. Last year we bought 120 oysters, which we had to shuck. We're never doing that again. A few years ago we had a massive cote de bouef, on top of a roasted pork belly and a giant pasta pie.

And this year was no different—except someone came up with the idea of a turducken, and the rest, as the saying goes, is family history.

Thanks to good foresight on the part of our youngest cousin G, we got a de-boned chicken and duck from a butcher. And having read and reread Jeffrey Steingarten's account of his search for the authentic turducken in his book It Must Have Been Something I Ate, I decided that it was imperative I make three different stuffings for maximum flavour.

So here it is, our account of our first turducken in pictures. It wasn't as much work as I had imagined it would be (thanks in large part to the already deboned chicken and duck), and the process was wonderfully hilarious and just the thing to put us in the Christmas spirit. Every time I looked at the turducken I just had to laugh, it was ridiculously massive and a miracle that it fit in my oven.



Debone turkey, backbone first.



Beware the spotted beast stalking the raw meat.



Remove all but the thigh bones and wings of the turkey.



Spread over a layer of shrimp and cornbread stuffing.



Place the de-boned duck on top.



Spread a layer of pork and chestnut stuffing on top.



Place the deboned chicken on top...



And then a layer of smoked oyster and bacon stuffing. We also threw in the turkey giblets for good measure.



We figured we'd tie the bird up before stitching it together. But I think I over-did the stuffing a little and the chicken tried to make its way out of the crowded cavity.



Close up the beast with Christmas-red cotton thread. My fingers were sore the next day from it!



Season with salt and pepper.



Place in the oven at 100 degrees C for the first 6 hours and then increasing by 10 degrees C every hour after that.



The bird is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 74 degrees C or 165 degrees F.



Keep basting as you cook. The bird oozed a whopping 15 cups of juices and fat as it cooked and I ladled the fat out every few hours so the bird wouldn't steam.



The result: gorgeous layers of wonderfully moist meat and cupfuls of juices swishing about in the pan. Even with 17 of us at dinner, we only managed to eat about a third of the turducken. What a feast!

Happy holidays!

Teriyaki Steak in a Haze

I haven't cooked in a while, so I decided to shake it up tonight. I must have been inspired by the the heavenly salty caramel gelato I had at Otto last night. Or maybe it was the olive oil gelato? So glad it's bathing suit time in a matter of days.

I found an old cue card with my handwriting on it; a recipe for teriyaki steak- I don't know where I copied the recipe from, it was definitely from one of my mom's cookbooks. I tend to raid her cookbooks everytime I'm home.

I'm writing to you from a hazy, smoky 700 square foot (it's probably 625 sq feet and they're lying to ROB me monthly), but it's worth it. I just picked up yesterday's NY Times to finish it (so much stress to finish the damn thing!) and Mark Bittman did a bit about "granite being optional for real chefs". I have no fan, hardly any storage space, no outdoor BBQ but I can make it work (and well I may add after tonight's success)! So, I write you this recipe from my very smoky beefy couch! Talia knows what I am talking about- her last kitchen was a science experiment.

I didn't take a picture cause the smoke was a bit excessive. All in the name of a great meal.

Teriyaki Filets
(2) 5 oz center cut filets (or whatever!)
Marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp vinegar
3/4 tsp ginger
1 decent size garlic clove, minced

salt and pepper steaks. Marinate for 5-10 minutes. Grill on both sides on a grill pan.
Leave some sauce left over to pour on. I served with stir fried green beans and garlic.

Best Husband Ever Bakes Wife Nikon D700 Cake...With a Surprise

How wonderful and nice husband this is !

Flickr user fsumaria has herself a great husband. After all, only a great husband would bake a Nikon D700 cake for his wife's birthday then follow it up by giving her the real thing.








So I guess some woman photographer will jealous with fsumaria... just kidding, don't mind that. kekeke

Credits:
fsumaria flikr site
gizmodo blog

What the heck so big for a duck ?

I was too bored and try to visit whattheduck.net. When I going to "what the duck photo contest" heres come a funny photo(at least for me).



well, you can try to visit find via here to see more contest photo.

Have a nice day! :D

Strip - What The Duck [625]

Which one you are ?

A little suspension bridge

This little bridge located at Mt.Kinabalu Heritage Resort&Spa, just 7km away from Kinabalu Park.
I was using f/14 aperture and 8 seconds exposure timer to get the "stary" effects.
Hope you like it.

Mount Kinabalu

Nature

Standing alone

First day creating an account.

Hi ladies and gentlemen , just now I'm thinking of creating a blog that just to post up my noob photos and share with you guys. Hope to contribute more in future, I'll appreciate that you guys can take an effort visit this blog.

Creating of this blog was inspired by a man who invisibility pointing(can be count as insult)at me that I don't have a good gear yet "acting" professional to give people advice, even say that I'm always speaking but never post a good photo(regarding of one lens).

I admit that I'm new into photography, yes, I'm also a kid who with a very low income that can't even buy a good lens.But okay, purpose of this blog is just post up my photo and shares it, might wanna see my improvement over periods.
Also want prove to the man who pointing that i can't shot good pictures.

August 22, 2009
It's been a time that I'm into this hobby. All I can say I did improve myself, even some other people said too. I'm not a gear talker like before. My skills either improved a bit or never improved.
And lastly, I wanna thanks to the stingy man who criticize me a lot before.

Best Regards,
YongJk