There's something fishy about this - good fishy

I love seafood. Well, fish, prawns and crab. I'm not keen on molluscs or squiddy things.

Anyway, steamed fish was always one of my favourites growing up. It's refreshing (coriander and ginger - always a winning combo), delicious and er..well, it can be healthy.

So, let's have it. I'll tempt you with a photo first.



I'm going to give the ingredients to serve 2. It's generally used as a central dish Chinese style. You can use any white fish (cod, bream and sea bass are the most popular) I use about 150g per person and tend to go for cod loin fillets. They're good if you don't want to deal with heads and tails and de-boning.

Ingredients:
300g white fish (obviously)
1 tab soya sauce
coriander
2 tabs water
1" piece of ginger - finely shredded
about 1/4 of a stock cube
a dash of sesame oil

Place the fish in a heatproof dish (I often use one of those pyrex things). Place the shredded ginger and half of the coriander on top. Place the dish in a large shallow pan (with a lid) and add some water to the pan (but OUTSIDE the fish dish). You'll then need to put the lid on and turn the heat on. The aim of this is to steam the fish. Some of the steam will condense and settle in the fish dish but that's ok. You may need to experiment a bit, but this amount of fish should take about 15 mins to steam. When the fish starts to flake, it's ready. Don't overcook it or it'll be dry and a bit rubbery.

In a small separate pan, add the oil, stock cube, water and soya sauce. You'll need to heat this up on high. It only needs about 3-4 minutes to get super hot. Time it so it's ready just when the fish is done.

Pour the sauce over the fish, sprinkle the remaining coriander over it and serve immediately. Serve with rice and perhaps some braised pak choi or stir fried veggies.

Enjoy!

Back to food - hurray!

I've recently become rather obsessed with Japanese food. Especially bentos. I'm not sure why. My daughter was given a gorgeous little lunchbox and matching cutlery set (with spoon, fork and dinky chopsticks, which she insists are knitting needles) by a friend and, as she'll be having to take a lunch in to pre-school one day a week from September, I suppose I'm planning ahead. I know, who is this person who has taken over my body..planning ahead indeed!

Annnyway, so I decided that my hubby also needs a decent packed lunch and prompted investigated lunchboxes (minds out of the gutter if you please). A friend of mine sent me a link to Bento & Co, a company based in Japan (but of course) and the rest is history.

I got a funky, compact, microwavable lunchbox for DH and some lovely things to use for my daughter's lunches (and they might find themselves in his too - kawaii cartoon cuddly bear ketchup pot in his lunch? Muhahaah!). She loves the little sauce pots (tiny, lidded plastic pots big enough for about one teaspoon of ketchup - not nearly enough for her).

Here's a picture of the pots. They come in packs of four, each featuring a different cute animal.



I love these!



They're rice moulds for making onigiri (rice balls). There's a star, a heart and a bear. Very cute.

And here are the results (there were more but er..they were used for "testing").



I'm going to try making Japanese omelettes and stuff next. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that I've been making sushi! I make gaijin (foreigner) sushi, of course. I use smoked salmon and cucumber, which isn't that far out, but I also experimented with frankfurters (those Hertz ones - yum) and cucumber.

Gosh, that's a rather picture heavy post. So, no recipes - I'll have to put some up another time. I've just seen a lovely photo of steamed fish (Chinese-style) saved to my "blogging" photos folder so I'll have to do a write up of that one too.

Stash Flashage

As I've been obsessed with make up lately, I've been organising my very very modest stash. I always think it's fun seeing other people's stashes of various things, be in knitting wool, nappies (yes, I like cloth nappies), make up, fabric or whatever.

So here's my make up.


Left tray: Foundation, kits, blushers, powders and my new Shu Umeru eyelash curler. Oh yes, and a tin with my samples and spare bits.
Middle tray: Lip products.
Right tray: Eye products.

That's all of it except for one eyeliner crayon (but then it's a dupe).

The eyeshadows

1: Bourjois Smokey Eyes Trio in 05 rose vintage
2: Ruby & Millie Eyes
3: Bourjois Smokey Eyes Trio in 06 violet romantic
4: Avon True Colour quatro in sueded nude
5. L'Oreal ColorAppeal Platinum
6. Sleek Divine Eyeshadow Palette in storm
7. Avon Anew lifting eyeshadow in sky
8. Revlon ColorStay eyeshadow quatro in 10 berry bloom
9. Revlon ColorStay eyeshadow quatro in 07 spring moss

The eyeliners

Left to right: Barbara Daly Make-up liquid satin in seal, the same in marine,Laura Mercier eye liner in black ebony, Barbara Daly Make-up eye define in black, BarryM Intense black eyeliner pen, Avon glimmerstick eye liner in blackest black, Avon Anew smoothing eye liner in grey, the same in brown/black.

I got bored and haven't gone through the lip products. Or nail polishes. But I don't have so many of those.

Food for those who don't want it

As I've mentioned (read moaned about) before, I've had problems with eating lately thanks to lovely drug side effects (that's medicinal drugs, not recreational - I've never even tried any of those). I know from also having suffered from awful awful morning sickness that sometimes you WANT to eat, but the fear of boomerang food means that you just go hungry.

Anyway, today is one of those days I'm hungry and NEED to eat, but nothing takes my fancy. This is my go-to recipe for a nutritious and non-offensive, filling meal for the sickly. It's also packed full of veggie-bubble goodness.



Ingredients
3-4 potatoes
1 onion
1-2 carrots (depending on how carroty you like it)
2 sticks of celery
2 garlic cloves
2 stock cubes
water
a splash of soya sauce (optional)
cabbage (optional)

Step 1: Boil about 1 litre (2 pints) of water
Step 2: Peel and quarter the potatoes, throw them in the pot
Step 3: Peel and slice the carrots, throw them in the pot
Step 4: Crush and dice the garlic, throw in the pot
Step 5: Dice the onion, throw in the pot
Step 6: Throw the stock cubes in the pot
Step 7: Chop the celery into 1-2 inch pieces, throw in the pot
Step 8: Add boiled water and soya sauce, then cover
Step 9: Allow the pot to boil, then turn down the heat to a brisk simmer
Step 10: Add cabbage if you like it. I love it and add lots, but I realise that my love of cabbage is actually quite freaky.
Step 11: Allow the stew to cook for 20-30 mins or until the potatoes are soft (but not crumbly).

Serve with rice. I like to ladle it up (with plenty of the soup) into a bowl, mash it a bit, then mix the rice in. It's nutritious, very satisfying and very easy on the tummy.

These amounts should serve 2-4.

Ready to eat!


The beauty of this recipe is that you've got quite a few different veggie groups in there, you can add/change/substitute other things as you fancy, you don't have to prepare things very much, just peel, chop and throw them in. It's simple to make too, which is just what you need when you're feeling a bit under the weather.

Photos to follow.

I've hit my teens

Yep. At *cough21yetagaincough*, I've finally hit my teens. I've started taking an interest in fashion and makeup. Didn't take long eh? I know just who to blame though. My friend Lana (in Oz). She showed me these video tutorials on YouTube (by someone called Catalina), and suddenly, I decided that I too could maybe do this makeup stuff.

So with my guru Lana (she used to be a makeup artist) advising me, I've made some purchases. Oh yes, and I've been stalking some other blogs too, and found some other cool bits and bobs. No more will my makeup collection fit into a baby-sized shoe box..!

This is what I got today - a Sleek iDivine eyeshadow palette in Storm. Under a fiver in Superdrug. BARGAIN!



If you fancy indulging in some girly makeupness..here are the blogs I've been enjoying:

Catalina's Blog
Chanel Blue Satin
Cosmetic Candy

Oopsies

I know, I've been bad and not posted for a while. To be honest, I haven't done much cooking lately..or I have, but haven't really felt like it. I'm on some rather nasty tablets and they're making me feel sick a lot of the time. So cooking and eating are rather well, not really what I'm after at the moment. This is very disturbing for me as food has always been very important to me. Ah well.

I've just been getting rather obsessed with make up as well at the moment - so I've finally hit my teens! I was never bothered with such things and never even wore makeup til I was in my early twenties. Now, I think, I need to make a little more effort in order to not look like a hideous crone. Muhahaha.

Other than that, I've been rather busy with other stuff in my life. We've all come down with a cold, the weather was nasty..but has now turned nice and sunny..er and time has just flown.

Oooh yes, and I've just learnt how to do threading. I'm still rather un-co at it, but I'm very pleased with YouTube..it's so handy for learning how to do things. Perhaps print media might be on its way out? Possibly a worry to print publisher - and that includes me as I'm in that industry. We'll see.

Sowing sowing sowing

Spring is springing and it's time to get back out in the garden to do stuff. I've ignored it for most of the winter, but now that we're getting some sunshine, I've found my gardening mojo again.

So I've been digging, planning, watering and SOWING (my favourite bit).

I've got tomato and coriander seedlings coming up - yay. Also have chilli, okra, chinese bitter melon, lettuce, peas, pak choi, spinach, spring onions, leeks and carrots in. I love sowing seeds.