Japanese Cold Soba with Ribena Cordial Recipe!

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Photo credit: www.facebook.com/ribenasingapore

My mum used to be very strict about what goes into our mouths when we were younger. She would either scrutinise food labels or rely on her own judgement based on maternal instincts to determine if a particular food or drink could be included in her approved food list for children. Ribena is made with 100% Blackcurrants from New Zealand and is rich in Vitamin C, with no artificial flavouring, sweetner nor colouring. My mum felt so reassured by the benefits of Ribena that she gave us Ribena to drink on a regular basis and it soon became something that we would look forward to after school every day, especially when the weather was scorching hot!

We have introduced Ribena as a healthy drink to Little misschewy when she was about one year old and she loves it! Every now and then, she would request for a cup or packet of Ribena and we have absolutely no qualms about giving it to her after her meals. Do you know that each 200ml glass of Ribena drink provides a child’s daily Vitamin C requirements? If you find that Ribena is too sweet, it is actually not! The sweetness level of Ribena Cordial can be adjusted to suit your personal preference. As for me, I love mixing Ribena Cordial with chilled green tea!

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Interestingly, one can get creative with Ribena Cordial as it can also be used as an ingredient for simple dishes, desserts and beverages. Over the long weekend, I felt like eating clean and decided to whip up a dish of Japanese cold soba noodles, topped with all of my favourite ingredients! This dish is fuss-free and very easy to execute, even for a noob cook like me. Basically, you only need to boil everything! How you want your noodles to taste depends on the sauce or dressing! I usually alternate between a savoury soba noodle dipping sauce and a fragrant roasted sesame dressing. This time, I wanted something light and refreshing! Ribena Cordial came into the picture and the result was fantabulous!

Ingredients:

Buckwheat soba noodles
Shimeji mushrooms
Honey tomatoes
Japanese cucumber
Frozen Edamame soybeans
Dried Seaweed strips
Large bowl of ice
Lemon
Ribena Cordial

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1. Boil buckwheat soba noodles at medium high to high heat for about 10 minutes.

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2. Have a large bowl of ice on standby and immediately transfer the boiled noodles over. This is to prevent the noodles from being slimy and sticky, and is also a great way to chill the noodles quickly. You may also pop the entire bowl of noodles and ice into the refrigerator.

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3. Boil Shimeji mushrooms and Edamame soybeans at high heat for about 5 to 8 minutes.

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4. Drain away the boiled water. Leave Shimeji mushrooms and Edamame soybeans to cool.

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5. Combine chilled noodles, mushrooms, edamame, cucumbers and tomatoes in a bowl.

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6. Squeeze half a lemon into the bowl.

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7. Pour in two tablespoons of Ribena Cordial.

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8. Stir noodles and ingredients well.

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9. Garnish with dried Seaweed strips and serve!

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This plate of Japanese cold soba noodles turned out exactly the way I wanted it to be! It tasted light, tangy and a little sweet, which is definitely a perfect refreshing meal on a hot day! Bonus? I got my dose of Vitamin C! If you have tried any recipes with Ribena Cordial, please share them with me!

Get a free jug with every purchase of a 1 litre bottle of Ribena Cordial today! Like Ribena Singapore’s Facebook page https://facebook.com/ribenasingapore to stay updated on latest promotions!

Double-boiled ZESPRI Kiwifruit with White Fungus!

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After two consecutive days of posting simple recipes of Seafood Fried Rice with ZESPRI Kiwifruit and Japanese Vegetable Curry Rice with ZESPRI Kiwifruit, I will be doing short post on making Double-boiled ZESPRI Kiwifruit with White Fungus!

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Ingredients
– White fungus
– Wolfberries
– Red dates
– Rock sugar
– Pear
– ZESPRI Green Kiwifruit

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Add all the ingredients into the double-boiler and double boil over simmering water in a pot for about an hour.

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It’s so simple! You can choose to leave the double-boiler to cool before refrigerating it for a few hours prior to serving.

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Don’t forget to visit ZESPRI’s website for really cool dessert recipes!

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Did you know that ZESPRI Green Kiwifruit has FIVE times the nutrition of apples? It is also an extremely rich source of Vitamin C! Hope this little fun fact helps to chase those Monday blues away ๐Ÿ˜‰

Japanese Vegetable Curry Rice with ZESPRI Kiwifruit!

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Happy Sunday everyone! Yesterday, I shared a very simple recipe for Seafood Fried Rice for ZESPRI Kiwifruit and today, I will be blogging about Japanese Vegetable Curry Rice with ZESPRI kiwifruit! Yup, you heard me right! I posted a photo of the final product on Instagram and it seemed like not many could get used to the idea of eating kiwi with curry ๐Ÿ˜›

Ingredients
– Japanese Vegetable Curry
– Onion
– Potato
– Carrots
– ZESPRI Green Kiwifruits

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Slice/chop carrots, potato, onion and kiwifruits.

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Boil water and add a dash of salt and cooking oil. Boil carrots and potato for a few minutes.

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Drain away the water. Add Japanese vegetable curry and onion. Stir well.

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Add ZESPRI green kiwifruits and stir.

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Here’s our Japanese vegetable curry rice with ZESPRI kiwifruit! You can choose to serve it separately from your steamed white rice. It’s really very simple to cook! ๐Ÿ™‚

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Itadakimasu~ I personally like to mix the Japanese curry into my rice before eating. Anyway, this is a bit like assam sauce, minus the spiciness and sourness! Haha! For more recipes, visit ZESPRI’s website.

Seafood Fried Rice with ZESPRI Kiwifruit!

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How do you get creative when you have boxes and boxes of ZESPRI kiwifruits? On National Day, my mum and I whipped up a storm in the kitchen. Ok, my mum did the cooking while I stood there photographing the entire process ๐Ÿ˜› I’m gonna share a very simple recipe on Seafood Fried Rice with ZESPRI Kiwifruit today!

Ingredients
– Squid
– Crabmeat stick
– Prawns
– Eggs
– Steamed white rice
– Garlic
– Chicken stock
– ZESPRI Gold Kiwifruits

Quantity wise, I leave it all up to you! You can always add in more of the ingredients that you like ๐Ÿ˜›

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Turn on stove and heat up the wok. Add a bit of cooking oil and fry in some garlic. As it sizzles, add prawns, squid and crabmeat stick. Give it a good fry!

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For extra flavor, add in a dash of chicken stock.

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Pour in steamed white rice.

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Continue frying. Don’t forget to watch the fire and adjust accordingly to prevent burning the rice!

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Lightly beat eggs and pour them in. Stir till they are lightly scrambled.

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Now for the fun part! Add in diced ZESPRI kiwifruits and stir minimally.

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Wheeeeee! Our seafood fried rice with ZESPRI kiwifruit is ready! How does it taste? Surprisingly, it tastes quite good! A bit like pineapple fried rice! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Head to ZESPRI’s website to learn more about their recipes using ZESPRI kiwifruits!

Cook For Family: Power Packed Porridge with Cuttlefish, Fishcake, Chicken, Scallop & Peanuts

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I have decided to jump on the Cook For Family bandwagon together with over 100 bloggers. Basically, this initiative promotes cooking for our family members. Those who know me would know that missuschewy does not cook. At all. You will never find her in the kitchen. Except when she raids the refrigerator of course.

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The whole idea of cooking for my family members does sound kinda fun and meaningful but let’s face it, I can only cook something simple and fuss-free. I thought of my favorite porridge that my mum makes every now and then. It’s something that I can eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. True story! With that, my mum became my ‘Power Packed Porridge Consultant’. The porridge is ‘power packed’ because it has lotsa ingredients in it! There are slices of fried fish cake, cuttlefish, chicken fillet, scallops and peanuts.

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Preparation is very simple but I will still run through the process briefly over here. Shred chicken, fishcake and cuttlefish into slices. Marinate chicken fillet in sesame oil, oyster sauce and pepper.

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Soak rice grains with dried scallops in water for at least one hour.

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Boil half a kettle of hot water. Add boiled water into the slow cooker. Turn cooker to high heat.

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Half an hour later, add chicken fillet. Let it cook for another half an hour before adding cuttlefish and fishcake. Turn to low heat and let it simmer for one hour. Add hot water and stir when necessary. Finally, pour the whole can of peanuts into the pot. Don’t let the peanut sauce in the can go to waste. Pour it in too! It adds a sweet flavor to the porridge.

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Garnish the bowl of porridge with chopped spring onion and fried shallots. And tadaaaah~! That’s a bowl of power packed porridge for you!

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It’s a success! The porridge has a very nice sweet flavor and its texture is soft. Use only a slow cooker to cook the porridge!

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Glad to be part of this Cook For Family initiative! ๐Ÿ™‚

Cook Your Very Own Curry La Mian with Prima Taste!

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One lazy Sunday afternoon, the Chewys decided to stay at home and whip up a simple meal in the kitchen. Usually we would choose to eat out because the thought of having to cook and then wash up afterwards is quite scary. We were given the opportunity to sample Prima Taste’s Curry La Mian quite some time back but we never got round to doing it. To be honest, I will never forget the tasty Laksa noodles that we had at Prima Taste Kitchen last year. The noodles were premium steam dried and are not those deep fried noodles that u can get in your typical pack of instant noodles.

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Before I embarked on my mission, the missus proclaimed that she wanted to have a hard boiled egg to go along with her noodles so here’s one for each of us.

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I followed the instructions stated on the pack closely! Rule of thumb: Do not add too much water if not the curry will end up too watery.

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Pour in the Curry Paste first.

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Followed by the Curry Premix.

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At this point, it smelled heavenly already!

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Depends on personal preference. I tend to peel the hard boiled eggs while waiting for the noodles to be cooked.

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The missus and I decided to add crabmeat sticks and chicken meatballs too.

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And here is The Chewys’ very own Prima Taste Curry La Mian! Does it look appetising? The curry gravy was intense with flavors and very lemak too! Of course, the missus kept silent throughout as she tucked in hungrily into her bowl of noodles and this served as a form of reaffirmation that Prima Taste’s Curry La Mian is something that everyone can easily cook in the comfort of their own kitchens!

Thank you Prima Taste and Ruby from Foreword Communications for the Curry La Mian.

Bloggers’ Makan Session: He Cooked, We Snapped, Ate & Loved It!

Bloggers Makan Session

It was quite sometime ago when Jacob from Cook.Snap.Eat.Love tweeted if anyone of us would be keen on a makan session at his place. I follow Jacob’s blog very closely and have always marvelled at his culinary skills! I was very sure that he wanted to whip up something in his kitchen and indeed, he had that plan in mind. Jacob grows his own microgreens as seen in the above photo and used some to garnish the soup we had for dinner! Interesting, isn’t it? ๐Ÿ™‚

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Since misterchewy and I were the earliest (we reached on the dot while the rest were late!) we sneaked into Jacob’s kitchen and caught him when he was cooking the duck confit. In fact, he started preparations the week before! Don’t ask me how he did it but he did it. Oops sorry a bit of a spoiler there! Jacob’s girlfriend, Chloe, made these pretty Ispahan dessert for us! ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ˜€

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            Entrรฉe – Cream of Mushroom Soup

First on the three course menu was Cream of Mushroom Soup. All of us oohed and ahhed over it, no kidding! What a superb starter it was! Jacob used a great variety of mushrooms but I can’t remember how many different types went in there. Portobello mushrooms, blue oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms and shitake were some! The texture of the soup was like that of puree – thick, creamy and chunky. I enjoyed every bit of it and it was a delight to not only be able to drink but ‘eat’ my soup at the same time!

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            Main Course – Duck Confit

Cooking duck confit is a major project and it’s seriously an uphill task that not just any Tom, Dick or Harry can handle. Jacob got worried when all of us became quiet but that’s because we were too engrossed in eating! The skin of the duck was crispy and the meat was quite fork tender. I would consider Jacob’s version of duck confit to be somewhat leaner than those that I have tried.

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          Dessert – Ispahan

Hardcore dessert and pastry lovers would know who Pierre Hermรฉ is. The Ispahan is one of his signature creations, and it’s really delicate and exquisite. In shades of soft pink and red, complete with raspberries and a rose petal on top, this pastry is too dainty to be eaten. Crisp chewy macarons sandwiching a layer of raspberries on smooth rose buttercream, with a lychee in the center constitute the Ispahan. Chloe sure has potential! She was also thoughtful enough to make her Ispahan less sweet to suit Singaporean tastebuds.

Group Photo
Photo credit: Jacob

It was another awesome gathering with the bloggers. Fantastic food and lovely company I would say! ๐Ÿ™‚ Oh did I mention that misterchewy and I had another dinner to celebrate my grandpa’s birthday right after this? Hehe ๐Ÿ˜›

Our last meal for 2010 :)

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Heyy, how’s everyone? It’s less than 2 hours to a brand new year! What did you have as your last meal for 2010? I’m sure it had some significance! For us, we had something simple. Soba! To be exact, we had Toshikoshi Soba, otherwise known as “Year End Soba” in Japan. It symbolizes longevity, prosperity and health ๐Ÿ™‚ Besides this simple dish, we had some sides to go along with.

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Ngor Hiang made by Chewy Charles’ grandma

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Fishballs and Fishcakes

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Honey Glazed Chicken Wings

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Spicy Drumlets

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Here’s wishing everyone good health and good wealth! Hehe! Hope 2010’s been a great one for everyone and 2011 will be an awesome one! Cheers! ๐Ÿ˜€

Lotsa love from Charlene and Chewy Charles! <3

Homecooked food: Featuring Chef Chewy :)

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Chewy Charles invited me over to his house for dinner after our trip to the zoo zoo zoo! It was great fun even though it rained halfway through and we had to seek shelter for more than an hour.

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This is the menu that Chef Chewy painstakingly designed ๐Ÿ™‚ I brought it home as a souvenir.

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Our starter – Garden Salad.

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Chopping up the mushrooms for the pasta.

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Chef Chewy holding up one of my favorite kinds of pasta – Angel Hair.

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Two cans of Carbonara Mushroom sauce and two cans of Cheese pasta sauce.

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Haha oops. Ever ready for the camera even in the midst of frying.

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Not included in the menu. Chef Chewy’s mum helped to fry the french fries.

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Sides – Fried Scallop Rolls.

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Sides – Salmon Cheese sticks and Chicken Karaage.

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Main course – Sausage and Mushroom Spaghetti.

We were too full in the end so we skipped having durian. *Burp*
Hehe thanks Chef Chewy for the invite and to his family for hosting this dinner! Cook more often for me in future! ๐Ÿ˜›
Sadly, I cannot really cook. Anyone has simple recipes for me so that I can whip up something too? ๐Ÿ˜€