Month: July 2011

Stuffed pork meatballs pasta recipe.

This is actually quite similar to my first pork meatball attempt. However, I ommited the chillies and added something else…cheese!

Specifically, cream cheese which I had cut into cubes and stuffed into the middle of the meatball. It was awesome!!!

I wasn’t really into cheese stuffed meatballs at restaurants because they tend to use gooey cheese which you could hardly taste after cooking. Cream cheese holds it form very well though, and gave the meatballs a nice, interesting, creamy texture.

# – Stuffed pork meatballs, in the making :D

For the meatballs:

  • 500 grams of pork mince
  • 5 strands of long beans or French beans, finely chopped
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 3 tablespoon of mustard powder
  • 80 grams of bread crumbs
  • 1/2 tablespoon of salt
  • 100 grams of cream cheese, cut into cubes

For the tomato sauce:

  • 2 cans of plum tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon of thyme
  • 1 tablespoon of basil
  • 2 tablespoon of sugar
  • 1/2 tablespoon of salt
  • 300 grams of pasta

# – First, throw the diced onion and long beans in a bowl.

# – Followed the pork mince.

# – And then the bread crumbs.

# – Sprinkle mustard powder all over.

# – Don’t forget the salt as well.

# – Using your finger, knead the mixture until everything’s combined.

# – To form the meatball, get a clump of mince, flatten it then place a couple of cream cheese cubes in the middle.

# – Then cover it up and form a ball. Kind of like making glutinous rice balls.

# – Heat up oil in preferably a non-stick pan, place the balls in it to brown. Don’t crowd the pan so that the balls will cook evenly.

# – After a few minutes, turn the balls around to cook the other side. Turn them occasionally so that all sides are browned evenly. After all the meatballs are browned, set aside.

# – Now, to make the tomato sauce. In another pan, brown some onions and then dump in two cans of plum tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes if they’re not already cut. Throw in the thyme.

# – Followed by basil. I used dried herbs but you can of course substitute with fresh herbs :)

# – Stir in the sugar to offset the tang.

# – Then, dump in all the meatballs to simmer for a further 10 minutes. Make sure all the balls are evenly coated by the tomato sauce.

# – In the meantime, cook 300 grams of pasta according to the instructions on packet.

# – When pasta’s done, drain it, serve on a plate and pour the tomato sauce and meatballs over it. Stuffed pork meatballs pasta, DONE! This recipe serves 4.

# – Cut into the ball…

The pork meatballs were very well seasoned with a creamy middle. I love it cause I could taste the cheese, which is a pleasant contrast from the dense, juicy meat. BF was shooting me loving looks everytime he took a bite :D

I think this was my better attempt with pork meatballs (compared to my first experience) because the balls really held their shapes.

I think it’s because the mince were a tad on the fatty side…which really helped the meatball in holding its spherical form. So if you’re looking to make pork meatballs, try to buy mince that are interspersed with a lot of lard :D

The refreshing and delicious watermelon salad recipe.

I met my brother’s girlfriend for the first time last night. I made pasta with stuffed pork meatballs and watermelon salad for dinner, followed by lemon almond sandwich cookies for dessert. It was a nice dinner, that’s all I’m letting out :)

My first experience with watermelon salad was at a BBQ-Addicts party and it has become one of my favourite salads in the world. Unbeknownst to the folks at BBQ-Addicts, the other reason I love their parties is the watermelon salad! So this recipe was very much inspired by it.

I was a bit worried about it at first, because I’ve never made it before and it might turned out nasty. Then there was the hurdle of buying a watermelon. I’ve never bought a watermelon alone. I was SCARED T_T

I must have done something good though because as I was cluelessly checking out watermelons in Tesco, a total stranger started tapping on all the watermelons and suddenly, he pointed at one and told me in mandarin, “That’s a good one” and just nonchalantly walked away. Of course, I bought the one he pointed at and he was right, it was sweet and juicy!

Thank you watermelon angel!!

This recipe serves 4 and requires no cooking (yay!!!).

# – Watermelon salad.

The ingredients:

  • 1.5 kg of seedless watermelon (weight with rind on), rind discarded and cut into cubes
  • 100 grams of mature cheddar, cut into cubes (you can use feta cheese or goat’s cheese too!)
  • 15 black olives, sliced
  • 1 small red onion, sliced thinly
  • 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 bunch of Italian parsley, roughly chopped

The dressing:

  • 100 ml of olive oil
  • 50 ml of balsamic vinegar
  • A dash of coarse sea salt

# – First, cut the watermelon flesh into cubes and dump into a large mixing bowl.

# – Then, throw in the sliced olives.

# – Followed by the thinly sliced red onion.

# – Okay, lets cut to the chase….throw in the parsley, cherry tomatoes as well as mature cheddar cubes!

# – In a measuring jug, pour in the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a dash of coarse sea salt. Whisk till combined. Dressing is now done.

# – Pour the dressing all over the salad.

# – Toss the salad…

# – Watermelon salad, DONE!

Thankfully, in spite of my first time making it, the salad turned out delicious! So much so, the BF was stealing salad from my plate!

I love this salad because it’s so refreshing and tasty! The crisp & juicy texture of the watermelon goes amazingly well with flavours of savoury cheese and olives. The dressing holds everything together as though they are meant to be.

Well, they are MEANT TO BE! I’ll be having dinner alone tonight and guess what I’m making :)

Lemon almond sandwich cookies.

I have a confession to make. This was supposed to be an attempt to make lemon macarons :P

However, instead of macarons, these turned out instead. I decided to call them lemon almond sandwich cookies because no macaron feet appeared. I didn’t want to file this under “Cooking Failures” either, because they are DELICIOUS!

# – Lemon almond sandwich cookies.

Crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle with a decadent lemon flavoured cream cheese filling.

For the cookies:

  • 300 grams of finely ground almond, sifted
  • 220 grams of icing sugar, sifted
  • 4 egg whites
  • 100 grams of caster sugar
  • Juice of 1 whole lemon
  • Zest of 1 whole lemon


For the filling:

  • 150 grams of cream cheese
  • 50 grams of butter
  • 2 tablespoons of icing sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
  • Some yellow colouring

# – First, sift icing sugar into the sifted finely ground almond (sifting store bought ground almond is time consuming…please armed yourself with some patience)

# – Then, mix them up till combined, like this. Set aside.

# – In another bowl, beat the egg whites till stiff. Add in the lemon zest.

# – Followed by 1/2 of the lemon juice.

# – Lastly, add in the caster sugar and beat everything till mixture looks shiny and glossy. You now have a meringue mixture.

# – Next, gradually add the almond/icing sugar mixture into the meringue.

# – Gently fold to combine, then stir in the remaining 1/2 of lemon juice.

# – Spoon mixture into a piping bag.

# – Pipe out evenly sized disc on your non-stick baking mat/paper.

# – Leave this out for a minimum of 30 minutes to form shells.

# – Stick it in oven that has been preheated at 160 degree celcius. Once the cookies are in, turn the temperature down to 150 degrees celcius. Bake for 25 minutes.

# – Leave the cookies are to cool completely (I cheated by sticking them into the fridge :P)

# – In the meantime, allow the cream cheese and butter to soften in a bowl.

# – When they have softened, beat till smooth then add the icing sugar, lemon juice and yellow colouring. Beat again to combine. The lemony cream cheese filling is now done.

# – Scoop filling into a piping bag.

# – Pipe it onto one cookie and the rest is self explanatory…

# – Lemon almond sandwich cookies, DONE.

# – Refreshingly lemony and creamy.

# – Couldn’t resist having a bite while taking pictures.

Macarons, what macarons? Hehe.