Elaine's Christmas Turkey

I've made this for the last 3 years, so I think I can conclude that to make the perfect turkey, the all important ingredient is.. (drum roll).. Bacon! It's so simple once you involve bacon, as that means there is no basting involved and the turkey can be out-of-sight-out-of-mind while it cooks.

This year I made a turkey to feed about 12 people - so 6.3kg worth. On top of that I purchased about 1.5kg of unsmoked streaky bacon and used that all on the bird.

step 1:
Wash turkey inside and out. I always get fresh turkey, no need to bother with defrosting! Pat dry.
Step 2:
Rub inside of turkey with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Throw in garlic, onions and any herbs you like (mine just has rosemary)
Step 3:
Gently separate the skin on the top of the turkey. insert the bacon rashes under the skin, I think I used 4 or 5 rashes each side of the breast. Make sure it spans as wide as possible. I used a spoon to help me sperate, then it's all hands on deck!
Step 4:
Weave bacon rashes all over the top of the turkey. I make it as tight as I can and cover as much as possible - there's heaps of bacon!
Step 5:
Oil the tray and place some parsnips and onions as a base (not too much!). Place the turkey on top of these. I then place more bacon around the legs and make sure I cover the enterace of the turkey with bacon. Feel free to stuff some bacon inside too!
Step 6:
Place toothpicks all over to hold the bacon weave in place. I placed so many I lost count! Peel onions and garlic and place all around the turkey.
Step 7:
Place a foil tent over the turkey and place in oven for 165degreesC. I cooked mine for 3.75hours and it came out awesome. Though this does depend on the oven and turkey size!
I do stick a thermometer in so I can check the temperature of the meat (thickest part should be at least 165f to eat).

Yum turkey for a Merry Christmas! The bacon comes out crispy and the meat is juicy. Awesome = bacon turkey.

The magical time of Christmas

So much has happened over the weekend as it's coming up to Christmas!

Went to my aunts house for a Christmas/birthday dinner and was so spoiled with yummy food.
We started with a trio of salmon: smoked, cured and salmon mousse with oysters on the side. The oysters wre huge, nothing like the ones we get in Sydney!

Then we followed that up with 2 huge plates of crab on noodles. Crab! Yum! It was cooked in black bean sauce over egg-like JLO friendly noodles. spicy but oh so good.. I guess it's not often we have crab with noodles, it's usually lobster! (which reminds me we should have that soon)

My birthday cake was green tea inspired purchased at Lanka in Hamstead. It's awesome; light and yummy. Overall a ridiculously full night, I had to lie down after dinner as I couldn't move! :) yay for the magical time of the year

Po-Cha goodness

There is something about spicy food that makes me smile.. And I'm not referring to the forced expression one has to give as a reaction to the chilli explosion that occurs. When it's cold out and we don't have much on, we like to head down to Tottenham Court Station and have some Korean food. There's about 5 such restaurants in a row just behind Centerpoint Tower and sadly we've been to all. Not all deserve your money, but there are a couple which we do return to.

Thinks to order: def get a hotpot. It's warm, yummy and great for the cold weather!
Bimbimbabs are good in most of them. Get it in the stone pot!
Topikko: rice cakes, chilli .. Yum!
Jap chae and pancakes are always a big hit.

Po-Cha.. I give you my money with a smile!

Koya - The Soho Udon adventure

The last time we went to Burger & Lobster with DrDrey, she showed us this udon place (Koya) on Firth Street in Soho. It was about 6:30pm but the place was bustling and there was already a queue outside with about 20 people waiting in the cold.

I'm a little sick of the whole queuing for restaurants thing, so I told myself to comeback during lunchtime. Also with JLO's allergies we cant have ramen, so Jap-wise udon is the next best thing!

Last Saturday about 1pm JLO and I got there and there was no queue, however once we sat down a nice little hoard of people decided to queue up! Always makes me feel special to have gotten a table when that happens :)

The menu was straightforward, udon in soup, cold udon with hot soup, udon with cold dipping sauce, udon in curry and some dons for the non-udon fans. Side dishes also available, we went with pork belly cooked with cider (£6.50) (porkalicious!) and udon with pork & miso (£9.90). I asked for an egg (£2.50) as well which was perfectly cooked the way I like; semi solid but still runny on the inside - yum. The egg comes on the side still in it's shell and cold, which was a little tricky to crack open and got a little messy.

Verdict: JLO friendly udon is a hit for cold days (and udon craving days). Udon was nice and solid and not too sticky, soup base was light and tasty, pork in my noodles was sweet and the pork belly side dish was melt-in-your-mouth good. Service was a little ho-hum, but overall I'd go back if there was no need queue.

I heart Japanese food!

Easy-peasy Pork Rashers

Really yummy, tender and awesome with ingredients you already have! (and unlike the title, there are no peas in this, I promise.) 

What was used:
500g of Pork Rashers (also known as pork belly slices)
3 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tsp 5 Spice Powder
5 Tbsp Kecap Manis (Sweet Soy Sauce)
1/2 Tsp Ground Pepper
(if you want it a little spicy, add some chilli!)
- Preheat Oven to 180 Degrees.


a) Mix all the dry ingredients together (including the garlic). I used a hand held dicer but I guess you can use a food processor or anything else that chops the garlic to little pieces and mixes everything together.
b) Add in the Kecap Manis to the mix. I just stirred it all together with a spoon and made sure it was evenly mixed.
c) Cut the Pork Rashers into about 4cm pieces (or whichever size you like). I find this size the easiest to eat with rice!
d) Mix the sauce and pork in a bowl, ensure its well covered!
e) Lay on an oven try (deeper is better as there's sauce!), cover with foil and place into preheated oven for 45mins. At this point when you take it out it should be sitting in its own juices and not be burnt at all as its been covered.
f) Flip all your pieces and remove the foil lid. Back into the oven for 15 mins and that should change the colour and texture of the meat as now its direct heat onto the meat.

Smell it!

Mixing meat with sauce - pre cooking

The finished product - it tastes much better than it looks :)

Luxemburgerli Surprise

Mini macaron surprise from JLO when he got back from Switzerland! Got a box of them after his colleague recommended them to him, sweet of him as he can't eat them - yay more for me

Luxemburgerli.. What are they?
Super light mini macarons with a top and bottom sugar based confection filled with yummilicious cream in it's center. They are the lightest, easiest to eat macarons I've ever had! 

Enjoy my photos as I enjoy them.. nom nom. Thanks JLO, much love!

Pretty & Perfect.. pretty perfect!

In its protective case - it survived a plane ride!

Lounge food (the airport sort)

Some of you might know that I just recently returned from a whirlwind trip. Plenty of cities in 10days! London-Singapore-Sydney-Singapore-Johor-KL-Johor-singapore-London.. Hectic! It was a trip filled with family and food (so so so much food), where there were days I needed to lie down after each meal for fear that I'd topple forward or fall into a food coma. We ate whenever we felt like it, so it was hardly a 3 meal a day affair and became more like phat kids trying to eat through the world affair.

It all started on my journey to Singapore. On the plane I was fed so well; satay (with some extra skewers as requested by this phat kid) then the main of chicken rice followed by fruits and slice of cake for dessert.. Let's not forget the many cups of green tea and garlic bread I felt I had to consume. I knew I had to get some sleep in preparation for my 9 glorious hours of layover in Singapore, but what I wasn't prepared for was the food that awaited me in the airline lounges! Someone went a little mad with boredom it seems..
-first course: more sticks of satay
-secondly: curry with brown rice
-followed by: pear and apple juice
-fourth course: rice with green curry
-then: carrot cake (chai dao kueh)
-are you appalled yet: sushi rolls
-seventh plate: more carrot cake ( but I was in a different lounge so it looked and tasted different!)
-finished with: watermelon and pineapple. Seriously the sweetest and most awesomest pineapple ever. I kid you not. My dad would make a stop at this lounge every time he flies just to have it. Naturally I had more pineapple to absorb it's awesomeness, till my mouth was so furry it became a furby.

Tried to take photos but I was so caught up with eating I forgot at times..

By this time I was ready to roll onto the next plane to take me to Sydney. However, (hold on to your tummies..) Singapore Airlines could read my mind and gave me more food! Satay again, followed by garlic bread and then my main of chicken curry and rice! 

Are you full just from reading this yet? Actually I'm a little hungry thinking about it.This was all before I had landed at my first destination of Sydney. Needless to say, I had an awesome trip filled with food, family, fun and a new dog Billy. Now it's back to daily work life /dread.

Mr Mooncake Prat

Its a little late (ok a lot late), but we only just ate our mooncake. He was cute, plus he was JLO friendly as he only had lotus paste in his insides. I did wish he had some egg yolks though, haven't had double yolk mooncake in so long!

The packaging made it look like he should have had legs but no, we were victims/suckers of cute packaging and so Mr pig seemed to morph into mr mooncake rat once opened.

Mr mooncake pig/rat (= prat). A little tough on the outside but soft and sweet inside. aww!

Mooncake Pig
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Becomes Mooncake Rat!
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Easy friendly Mash

Potatoes are a super favourite in our household. They are easy to eat, easy to make and easy to prep. Plus they keep well for the next day if you have any leftovers! Win-win all round I say.

What I haven't been able to do is make a good dairy free mash without causing commotion in the kitchen. I hate the mashing thingies with the grid, it causes me post potato stress as the washing is so hard! Plus most creamy mashes call for milk, which is of course not friendly for all..

That day I was making soup so I went a little crazy with purchasing potatos and discovered that by Thursday I had gigantic proportions of potato left. Not that there were many of them, I had 2 giant ones so though I'd make some mash.

I usually just smash my potatoes as it's much easier than trying to make it creamy but this time I boiled them a little longer than usual till they were breaking apart (skinless potatoes). After draining the water from the pot I chucked in a handful of fresh rosemary and a good splash of olive oil. I mixed it a little then covered the lid and left it for a few mins. Using a strong spatula, I stirred while adding in more olive oil till I got the consistency I liked. Salted, a bit of a stir and high praise from JLO!

Rosemary mash
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Chicken for the Emperor

I get a little silly when I go to the Asian supermarkets here, perhaps it's because there is an abundance of Asian grocers in Sydney and here they just aren't the same. I like the massive warehouse sort in north/south London - Wing Yip or See Woo. The variety and prices are so much better than the stores in Chinatown and I tend to buy things I don't really need or will ever use.. Quite the same as hypermarket shopping - I'm just a fantastic impulse shopper!

I found this brilliant little packet of emperors chicken spice mix, which reminds me of what my family had a few times in Malaysia called beggars chicken. Not sure why the emperor is eating the sane thing as beggars (or the other way round?), but it is super yum and really easy to make.

The emperor chicken packet is about £1.50 and in it you get a pouch of powder mix and the necessary wrappers (one plastic wrap and a foil wrap). JLO and I usually get a whole chicken just under 1.5kg off our dinner, so we get some leftover for lunch the next day. I prefer the corn fed organic chicken, it seems to be more tender after cooking.

Wash the chicken, dry and place in the center of the plastic wrap with the foil wrap underneath. Rub all over with the powder mix and (as an extra touch) sprinkle gojiberries all over and place some inside the chicken. Wrap the chicken in the plastic, then the foil. Steam for 2 hours. Simples!

Steaming as opposed to baking is the best as the juices provide great gravy and makes eating any unloved part of the chicken easy. This is easy to make, and makes me look like a regular nigella at home as JLO loves it too.

I'm so glad that's what I'm having for lunch today. Thanks Wing Yip and the magical power of microwaves, without it I couldn't have yummy leftovers!

The magical packet
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Emperors Chicken, in it final glory state
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Burger & Lobster

We've been to this restaurant more than a couple of times now, and the love affair is still going strong!

It all started closer to the beginning of this year, when PMan decided that we should try out this place in Mayfair that only serves lobsters and burgers (surprise surprise). No reservations were allowed and you had to turn up, put your name down and wait for a table. There were 7 of us, so we knew we had a long wait ahead of us! Pman got there at 5pm to put his name down - and JLO and I turned up about half an hour later to meet him at the pub.
Any guesses for what time we got a table? 
10pm. TEN. By the time 9pm came we were at our wits end, but it was either waste the 4 hours or wait for the additional one..

Needless to say we did enjoy it, otherwise we wouldn't still be giving them our hard earned money. Since then they have opened a branch in Soho, which is the one we frequent most often (apparently you can book a table if you have more than 6 people). Turn up at 6 and you shouldn't have a problem getting a table (except fri and sat nights). The menu is fairly straightforward: burger, lobster or a lobster roll. All served with salad and fries, which are pretty awesome as they are skinny! Everything is £20, and you can upsize your lobster if you wish.. But seriously, a normal one is enough even for a lobster lover like me. I go through all the parts, probably why I'm always the last to finish. Am pretty excited that they are opening a third branch soon!

How does this compare to the lobsters in Sydney? Well the ones I've had in Sydney have been at the fish market and I remember it being pretty dry, but the ones I've had at Chinese restaurants have been awesome. How I miss lobster noodles! We've been trying the different lobster noodles here in London, and I think we like the one at Pearl Liang the best. With JLO's allergies, we have to get vermicelli instead of egg noodles and they do it really yum!

While I love Burger and Lobster, it can't compare to the seafood in Aus and the yummy seafood restaurant we go to in Malaysia.. Makes me miss home!

the Burger & lobster bibs
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nom  nom nom nom grilled lobster with fries, salad and garlic lemon butter!
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Pineapple Pastry joy

While JLO was in Taiwan attending our friends wedding, VLing brought him to buy what is apparently the best pineapple pastry in town. I think he was quoted as "if Elaine doesn't like these we are no longer friends". I've been told the queue was half an hour or so, thus I was super eager to try one!

They come individually wrapped with 12 in a box, so they are great as they seem to keep well. I wasn't sure what to expect, and was secretly hoping they would be like giant pineapple tarts (love pineapple tarts that we get during Chinese new year).

When I finally got my hands on one, I was surprised that they looked so perfect. In my head I thought they would be more man-handled and less from a mould. However, the pastry was soft and melted in my mouth, and the pineapple was way less sweet than I expected. Overall, the inside and out work well together, and it really is like an easy to eat giant pineapple tart.

Its a good thing I like them as I now have 24 to eat :) Looks like we can continue to be pals VLing!

close up of the pineapple pastry
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Chia Te packaged goods!
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