Home Town:
Member Since:
Jan. 2003
Cooking Level:
Expert
Cooking Interests:
Baking, Grilling & BBQ, Frying, Stir Frying, Slow Cooking, Asian, Mexican, Indian, Italian, Southern, Nouvelle, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Dessert, Kids, Quick & Easy, Gourmet
Hobbies:
Quilting, Sewing, Camping, Boating, Walking, Fishing, Photography, Reading Books, Music
I was born in Singapore and have moved to live in Australia. Growing up in Singapore back when it was in a mostly rural setting where living was simple and quite primitive. Through my childhood I learnt to cook in the outdoors, bake and roast in simple methods.
Baking became my favourite thing to do when I was a teenager and took it to a different level; selling what I baked. It was after I was married I learnt to cook and have since thoroughly enjoyed it. My passion for cooking grew over the years, experimenting new recipes whilst still loving the traditional goodies. It was after cooking for friends time after time I began a catering business before relocating to Sydney in Australia.
My favorite things to cook
The first time I tasted our late-Gran's lamb and pork roast, I knew it then roast is it. My most favourite dishes to prepare are Christmas turkey roast in port and herb, fennel garlic pork roast, wine herbs lamb roast, roasted beer chicken with herbs and herbs, spinach, sundried toamto cheese beef tenderloin roast - a stunning roast when sliced. Also, I LOVE cooking stew and soup - mmmmmmmm... soul food!
My favorite family cooking traditions
I love steamboat; a Chinese New Year's Eve tradition in my family. Every member would squeeze around my mother's tiny dining table eating out of a stewing soup pot (used to have coal burning in a chamber under it) with a rich stock in it along with seafood, meat, veggies and many other homemade goodies. Something we never missed with it is my mother's HOT HOT chilli paste with lime juice and dark soy sauce in it. Yum! Another tradition now I have kept is from my husband's family: on Christmas day, we would have big fat Christmas turkey roast, herbed stuffing, ham, assortment of roasted vegies, cherries, brandied ice cream pudding, plum pudding, christmas pudding and the list goes on....yes the list actually goes on. As you can imagine, one would spend hours eating even a fraction of all that and we usually do!
My cooking triumphs
I actually cooked a good roast at my first attempt, not long after I tasted Gran's roast. I think that was just luck.
My cooking tragedies
I remember serving my husband and his mother an undercooked chicken breast - I wanted to hide my head somewhere 'cause I didn't heed my in-law's cooking advice! Another night, I cooked up about a dozen steaks for some friends at our place. The steaks they asked for were well done but I had them pretty charred on the outside and undercooked inside, plus a black peppered gravy too thick and sickly sweet!!!