My 1st Croissant! :)

I have always love to eat croissant its one of my old time favourite. The problem with me is that, i love to eat my croissant with butter and thats sinfully rich in everything particularly fats. So i have been toying with the idea of making my own "guilt-free croissant" for i have done a few recipes of my own through trial and error for my butter free bread or organic wholemeal bread as well as guilt-free Brioches as well. So i was thinking why not make my croissant less oilly and less butter and make it as healthy as possible so i came up with my own recipe for this and so this is my first procuce. Raymond was my tester person for he is french and so he should know better on how a croissant should taste and he is very particular with breads and pastries and particularly croissant. So this morning i suprised him with my mini croissant as well as mini croissant breads and he loved it! Especially when its not oilly at all and its very crispy and crunchy he said to me you must have put in tonnes of burre but i told him just the normal then less amount of butter and unsalted and just play around with the texture for the mixture for the dough so voilà! a healthy croissant!


The process of making the croissant

And the final product...voilà! Clarity's mini croissant :)


clarity me!

Recette : Eggplant Lasagne

here's the recipe Norma! Actually i never liked eggplants before because of how it looks like after they are cooked or whatever but somehow i made this dish coz i wanted something that will use a lot of vegetables in it and just toss it in the dish and bake and i also wanted it to be low on callories so i tried to get the cheeze to be the lowest amount of calories so choosing the types of cheese thats low on calories they have a lot at the supermarket these days but it should be a balanced so that the food wont compromised too much on the taste. Also by using the browned eggplants as the lasagna sheets cuts off a lot of calories already :)) anyhow here is eggplant lasagna :) hope you have a success trying it out Norma :)

Ingredients:

3 Large eggplant, (thinly sliced)
vegetable spray
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
16 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 cup of diced capsicum red/green and yellow

¼ cup of diced tomatoes

8 pieces of sun dried cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 jar (16 ounce size) spaghetti sauce with vegetables or White lasagne sauce
1 can of Chunky Tuna (drained)

8 ounces ricotta cheese, part-skim
4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

White sauce ingredients

250ml skimmed milk

4 slices of kraft cheddar cheese

2 tsp corn starch

salt and pepper

chopped dried basil leaves

Directions:

In large non-stick skillet sprayed with vegetable spray, quickly brown eggplant slices; set aside. In the same skillet in hot olive oil, cook onion for about 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until tender.

Add mushrooms and capsicum, dried tomatoes and tomatoes cook, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes or until they are tender then finally bring in the Tuna chunks stir softly for 2 more minutes add salt and pepper to taste transfer to a dish and set aside.

White Sauce

bring the skimmed milk to boil then add in the cheddar cheese until they are melted and blended with milk add salt and pepper. Take off heat and put in the dissolved cornstarch and let it thickens by stirring rapidly and forms a nice sauce texture then add in the chopped dried basil leaves and set aside.

Into an 11x7-inch baking dish, spoon about 1/4 of the sauce (i.e. Either White sauce or spaghetti sauce) Arrange three alternate layers of the (1) browned eggplant slices , (2) vegetables & Tuna mixture, (3) ricotta, mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese alternately ending with the top layer with the cheese topping. Bake eggplant lasagne at 350F for 30 to 40 minutes.

Have a go N!

Clarity

Love Cookies

Somebody have a sweet tooth so here is a treat for that special someone :)

Raisin and almond butter cookies :)

a lot of love pour into the working of this simple but heartfull cookies :)

Ready as can be....

Voila!

Kept inside the cookie tin especially for mon coeur :)

I call this cookies Love Cookies eventhough they are not the shape of a heart. Anyhow hope you like them cookies mon coeur!! ***emmuahhh***!!!


Love always,
Clarity!

Instant Noodles...Yummmmmmy!!!

Was on the phone with my aunt this morning and she asked me what i,m going to have for lunch and i told her just gonna have a simple Instant Noodle and i get a shrieking yucks from her and she went on telling me that its not good to eat instant noodled and stuffs. Ah well, i guess it depends how you prepare the food really and how much of the seasoning from the packet you actually use. So if you add some healthy ingredients to it and do not use the seasoning provided or just use some of it will definately make the simple dish more appetizing and healthy;

So to prove her my point here is my vegetarian Instant noodle Dish courtesy of Cintan Noodles :)

The Ingredients:-
1. Dries anchovies and shrimps
2. cabbage
3. carrot
4.Capsicums
5. Red Onion
6. and of course....Cintan Instant Noodles - Perisa Sayuran

Voilà! Instant noodles special! hehehe

thats the cintan noodles perisa sayuran i was telling you about :)

Yummyyyyyy!

Jangan jeles ya ;)
Clarity!

Mengada-ngada time...

Usually when i'm not feeling well or just on "mintak-puji" mode i will crave for food that i know i will not get like my mom's curry fish for example....So what to do..i was thinking..... i have some nice fish in the fridge and i have just bought some curry powder so i did it my way and make my own curry fish...this just shows i miss home and i miss my mom's cooking...huhuhu :((

so here is my own way of making....

"Chindika Fish Curry"

lots and lots of veggies just how i like it :)

Simmering .....

And....finally, Chindika Fish Curry!

mon coeur: A little bit spicy but still ok :)


Well at least i get to satisfy my curry cravings hehehe...thats all that really matters. Thanks mom for the tips on making the fish curry :) and can anyone guess what does "chindika" means? heheheheh......



Chindika me:)
Clarity!

Not feeling well activity :(

So i was not feeling well today so i decided to bake a cake just to pass the time for i have a very bad sore throat and almost losing my voice now but its ok....just wanna keep myself busy so i bake myself a small orange cake :)
so here is the cake :)

orangy cake!
Clarity!

My french Bun bread :)

I saw this technique of twisting two pieces of dough together and make it like a knot and so here is the end result of it :) Mon coeur said it's yummy :)

I'm also trying to improve my food photography skill...playing with the lightings and all....and i have another toy to play with too it's mon coeur's digital camera so we have two cameras to play with now :)

Soup + warm wholemeal bread = cosy dinner for two :)

not forgetting the loafy bread i make every once in a week for our supply of wholemeal bread for the whole week.


bready bunch!
Clarity!

Dinner for Two :)

i can never do a good soup and it happens to be my favourite food for dinner its not only filling but also healthy. Usually mon coeur will prepare this and i just watch and observe for its facinating how its been done and surely the end results is surely yummiest too. This particular soup, mon coeur cut up some pumpkin, potatoes , brocolli and some carrots and place them in a large bowl pour some water and off they go in the microwave. Then after several minutes all the veges are soft and mushy he then use the food processor to make pureee of the the whole vege mix; After that he adds some creame cheese and process the food again until it looks really really creamy and soft and then finally season it with pepper and salt and finally the finished product!

fruits & Vege salad + mixzd vege soup

yummieeee....

cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, green leafy salad & apples + mon coeur's own salad mix dressing

The supy soup!

here is our dinner :)


C & R

No Class but I was hungry....

So i was all excited to go to my class today and was told it's not until tomorrow....so i was suddenly left with a time gap of nothing-ness so thought i'd do someting creative so i tried my own smoked salmon in dil Pizza;

so here is the Smoked Salmon in Dill Pizza :)

ingredients :
Pizza Dough = multipurpose flour+instant yeast+a pinch of salt+ 1 tbs of granulated sugar + 3/4 of warm water
mixed all to form a dough and set aside

Base for the pizza = 1 big round tomato + 2 green onions + 2 garlic clove + fresh ground pepper
put all in a food processor and grind away to form a paste
Use this paste to coat the base of your pizza;

flatten your dough and make whatever shape you like then apply the paste you just made and sprinkled grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese which ever you like and put in the oven for at least 12 minutes

then take out from the oven, then arranged the bite sized smoked salmon in dill over the pizza then arrange the veges and pineapple strips then springkled some cheese on top of it and some ground peeper for some flavour an taste and finally pop it back into the oven for another 5 to 7 minutes then your pizza is ready to be served :)


deliciously yummmy!!

have a go peeps!

Bon appétit!

Clarity!

Chicky Egg this one is for you :)

Those are the claypots that mon Coeur bought at the Japanese Supermarket in KK the other day. it as really cheap too just RM5.99 a piece :)

Here is the Claypot chicken rice with shitake mushroom and shreded stir fry beef and soy sauced chicken :)

something i like which is chicken soup with potatoes and carrots :)

Before i left the othr day i have been interviewing chicky egg on how to do the claypot chicken rice and now finally i got the time to do it so here is the final product! Thanks so much Chicky-Egg!!


love always,
Clarity!

Mackerell in Herb Sauce :)

Well, once again mon coeur was inspired to make something really quick for dinner and he send me this pics for me to blog about coz he really made an effort to make it since its really a quick dish so mom was really impressed by it heheheh...

The funny skype conversation we had wt moncoeur and my parents is when my mom said this...

mom: so this dish really looks delishes..so does it taste delicious to? and then she laugh (hahaha)

Mon Coeur: Oh yes its sweet and the vegetables just add colour and flavour to the fish .

mom: good job :)

SO my mom dont believe that he can actually cook something hahaha,...anyhow, it was a good practice for my mom to use skype call in the new future as when i do move to KL i will be communicating with her regularly with skype so it would be some of the new things that my mom will have to learn about the internet and soon i think she will be doing her own blog! hahahaha

so here is the picture of the food mon coeur prepared for dinner last night!

Bonne Appetite!

Mon Coeur & Clarity!

something extra wonderful :)

Mon coeur suprised me with something he did at his place last night he cook a fish dish with white wine which look really yummy. I remember we bought the Argentinian White Wine @ the Bangsar Village Grocer and they let us taste the wine before we purchased it and it was a nice and sweet one. The wine is called "Trapiche" - Sauvignon Blanc. So , mon coeur was using this wine to create this recipe...Ermnnn about the recipe...hmn..well I dont know what its called and neither did mon coeur (hahaha) so we just call it Ray's Fish in white sauce and White Wine recipe :) ..he told me that when he got back from work yesterday, suddenly he was inspired to cook something special and would show it to me. I guess this food picture taking phenomenon is catching up and certainly mon couer is having the effect of it from me :) I told him before that this picture taking thingy has its way of creeping into one skin and before too long you are hooked with the sensation of taking beautiful and drooling food pictures.....and it certainly catch up on my darling mon coeur :) here's the picture that he gave copy rights for me to blog about it :) Merci Beaucoup mon coeur, et gros bisous pour toi!

He also mentioned to me that he will be cooking the same dish when we have our dinner for two again next :) looking forward to it already .....emuah!

It's really nice when two person share the same interest and in this case we are both into fine dining , cooking and wine and also photography. So, from time to time mon coeur will be one of the contributing author as well as photo provider to this blog so it's double the fun now :)

Anyhow, hope you guys enjoy the pics :) and...

passe une bonne journée!

Mon coeur & Clarity

Midnight Bottle

I came accross this song when mon coeur and i went to MPH to buy some books and we were both on the floor and was engrossed with our own book and this song "midnight bottle" was playing and i found myself ditching the book i was reading and trying hard to make up the lyrics in my head and finally when i understood the lyrics it kinda reminded me of our my first day @ maple when we had our romantic dinner for two and it made me smile and i was telling mon coeur that i like this song very much and with his smilling face, he said i'm sure you do and smiled but before too long i did find out who sang the song and the title of the song and here is the lyrics to it and also some pictures to illustrate what i was thinking about when i heard the song ...

Sole Meunière , some salsa and finally brocolli and pumpkin soup :)

The delicious white wine mon coeur brought from Paris :)

Some pressies for both of us :) from both of us :D

and not too long after some nice wine drinking...my eyes became blurry (hahaha) kidding :P

mon coeur..... emmuahhh! the wine was a fantastic choice indeed...looking forward to have more of this dinner for two evenings together :)

so here is the song i was talking about...

Song Name: Midnight Bottle
Artist: Colbie Caillat

Midnight bottle take me,
Come with few of my memories
And everything, well, come back to me
Midnight bottle make it real what feels like make believe
So, I can see a little more clearly

Like every single movement you make
Kissing me so carefully
On the corners of my dreaming eyes

I’ve got a midnight bottle,
Gonna drink it down
A one way ticket takes me to the times we had before
When everything felt so right
If only for tonight

A midnight bottle,
Gonna ease my pain
From all these feelings driving me insane
I think of you and every thing’s all right
If only for tonight

Got a midnight bottle,
Drifting off into the candlelight
Where I can find you in your time
A midnight bottle,
I forgot how good it felt to be in a dream
Just like you had me

‘Cuz lately, I'm stumbling
Feels like I’m recovering
But I think it’s only for tonight

I’ve got a midnight bottle,
Gonna drink it down
A one way ticket takes me to the times we had before
When everything felt so right
If only for tonight

Midnight bottle,
Take the time away...
From where we are

Dinner for two....

C&R

Clarity!