random tips about school prawns

Hi everyone!

I just want to quickly share one (very)random tips with you.

It’s about school prawns.

I bought half a kg of school prawns today, and when I got home, I de-headed and peeled them.

My random tips today is don’t throw away the school prawns’ heads. Why? Because we can make stock with those tiny heads.

And, they’re yummy for Tom Yum soup!

How to make prawn stock:

1. Boil water in a small stock pot. While you wait, rinse the prawn heads under running water- just enough so that it produce clear stock instead of dark brown.

2. Reduce the heat and add the prawn heads (and 1-2 coriander root if you have!). Cover with the lid and let it simmer for 5-10mins or until the prawn heads turn pinkish-red.

3. Get rid of the heads and there you have- a beautiful prawn stock!

Thank you for reading my random tips- I hope you find it useful!

until next time 🙂

Lest we forget- Happy Anzac Day 2013

Hi everyone 🙂

Just want to quickly share this post with you-

with all respect and gratitude, lest we forget, happy Anzac day 2013!

courtesy of Rosalina Indriani, my cousin, taken this morning

If you’re thinking to have a twist on your Anzac day baking this year, why dont you try these two lovely recipes I found:

* Baked Anzac Doughnuts by Emma Stirling of The Scoop on Nutrition

* Anzac Day Muffins from Weigh it Up website

until next time- and have a wonderful public holiday 🙂

the sun is shining outside! 🙂

home-made bread and it’s dairy free!

Hi everyone!

I just want to share with you my family recipe of  home-made bread. It’s originally my grandmother’s. It’s very simple to make!

If you have a bread machine, you simply add the ingredients and wait for the machine to do the work! If you like myself, don’t have any bread machine, then you’re in for a good arm workout 😉

just kidding.

it’s fun. it’s hands on and the kids can be involved in the process. I think it’s a great weekend (Saturday morning perhaps) indoor activity!

Ama‘s Bread Loaf

makes 2 small loaves and 5 bread rolls OR 2 big loaves

10 g yeast

700 g plain flour (500 g of high protein/bread flour and 200 g plain flour)

1 tbsp of dairy/soy/nut free margarine (I use Nuttelex)

2 cups warm water

110 g sugar

2 tsps salt

for the wash: 150 ml of water and 2 tsps of sugar

for topping: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, any seeds you like

How?

If you have a bread machine, follow its instructions. 

If you do it manually, then here it goes:

1. Mix the yeast, a cup of water and 200 g of flour. Leave it in a warm place. This process helps to activate the yeast. While you set it away, weigh the rest of the ingredients and mix everything in a big mixing bowl.
2. Once the yeast mixture is bubbling and expanding, mix them into the rest of ingredients. Knead them for a good 10-15 minutes, or basically until the dough comes together and soft. How to knead? punch, pull and press the dough. this is where the fun begins!
3. Once you’ve done with the kneading, shape a round dough, place it in a mixing bowl and keep them somewhere warm. I put them inside my oven. Now, we’ll wait until it’s doubled in size, should take around 1-1.5 hrs depending on how warm/cold where you are. In summer time, I found it’s doubled in size in 40-50 minutes. Today, I waited for 1 hr.
4. Once it’s doubled in size, punch the dough! It will shrink the dough and knead them again for 5 minutes. After that, you may divide the dough into 2 even portions for 2 big loaves or I split them into 3 and make 2 smaller loaves and 5 bread rolls. I also mixed in some poppy seeds. By all means, you may use chia seeds, linseed, poppy seeds, any seeds you like! Or keep it plain and simple 🙂
5. After splitting them into even portions, leave them in a bread tin or round tin, whatever you use and we wait again for about 20-30 minutes. This process will finalize the yeast activity before we bake them. At this stage, you may start pre-heating your oven at 160C.
6. Last step is to brush the top of the bread with the wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds (if you like, of course!). Bake them for 25 minutes.
7. Once it’s done, it should sound hollow when you tap the bottom bit. It should be golden in colour and your house will smell like a bakery. Wonderful smell and it will definitely wake up your neighbour ;P  we then brush the top of the bread with dairy/soy/nut free margarine or butter (if you’re not allergic/intolerant to dairy). the margarine will seal its moisture and keep the bread soft and not dry.
8. Bon apetite 🙂

I love this bread, I could eat (a lot of) it by itself! It’s such a comforting feeling, sipping a warm cup of tea while waiting for the bread to bake then enjoy it fresh from the oven. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Enjoy!

*Ama in Indonesian means grandmother- or at least that’s how I called mine

April Recipe ReDux- (allergy friendly) Very Vanilla Cupcake!

Hi everyone 🙂

How is everyone doing?

Hope everyone is well- and excited for April’s Recipe ReDux. The theme this month is:

April – The Cupcake Conundrum – Cupcakes: Yes or no? Can you not get enough cupcakes…or are you so over the cupcake trend? If you think cupcakes never go out of style, show us your most delicious ‘ReDux-ed’ mini-cake creation. Or if you’re in the camp that cupcakes have been a bit overdone, share your favorite hand-held dessert destined to be the next big trend. Inspiration for this month’s theme is courtesy of The Meal Makeover Moms.

I think it is a little challenging. Cupcakes are easy to make, however it is not easy to find the best cupcake: pretty, delicious, healthy and creative in one. Until now, I have not found the ultimate cupcake recipe. Hence I am really looking forward to reading what’s everyone doing this month!

Please do not go away from my page after you read the sentence above. ;P please have a little faith in  me- as I have the ultimate allergen friendly cupcake recipe! This recipe has been tried and tested in my kitchen, more than once! Yippee Yippee for everyone who is allergic to dairy/soy/egg/nuts/wheat/gluten. Also, for all the mums who ever need to bake safe-for-everyone-to-eat-at-a-party cupcakes! This recipe is da’ bomb! Look no more, peeps!

Dea’s Allergen Friendly Very Vanilla Cupcakes

dairy free, soy free, nut free, egg free, wheat and gluten-free

makes 20 cupcakes 

  

 

 

  

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I love this recipe so much. This recipe ‘invention’ was part of my research last year. I was trying out a lot of allergen friendly recipes and this recipe is a combination of a lot of recipes, textbook’s knowledge of food functionality and my own crazy idea. And finally I am satisfied with this recipe. The texture is really fantastic- it is exactly the same as gluten containing cupcakes. It is soft and spongy.

  

The taste is delicious. It tastes as nice as dairy and/or egg-containing cupcakes. I have tested this cupcakes with my colleagues, friends, and family. All came back with great feedback!

If I were to improve this recipe further, I would want to improve the colour. It’s looking a little pale. If you are not fussy with food colouring and really want to make this cupcakes more attractive, you could always add food colouring (or natural one using beetroot/spinach/carrot juice). I personally like it as it is. Yes it’s a little pale, but this cupcake is really basic hence it is safe for everyone to eat. We don’t have to ever worry about giving this cupcake to a child- it won’t make the child sick from any allergy or intolerance. unless if we give them too many cupcakes, of course LOL

I hope everyone enjoy my post today- and hopefully have a chance to try out my recipe! all feedbacks are welcome 🙂

Don’t forget to check out other’s Recipe ReDux cupcakes creation! Follow the link below!

If you enjoy this post, why don’t you share it with your friends and family?

a quick catch up from me!

Hi everyone!

It’s been forever since I updated Grainddiction- at least that’s how long I felt. I’m sorry I’m so slow this month.

I promise it’s for good reasons!

As obvious as the title, it’s gonna be a quick update from me, what’s been happening with me this month.

Firstly, this month I am the sub editor of the month for The Scoop on Nutrition of Emma Stirling. yes that Emma Stirling! Yay- for a month I get to spend time with her, and actually learn from her how to utilize social media effectively and efficiently to spread nutrition messages. Below is a quote from Emma’s blog, The Scoop on Nutrition on Sub of the Month.

We are passionate about supporting dietitians and nutritionists to be strong communicators. Ultimately this helps our cause to see credible nutrition information in the media and online. Once a month a dietitian joins us as the guest sub editor. Usually this is final year nutrition or dietetics student, new graduate or someone with experience, but not in the digital world. The sub of the month gets their hands dirty in the newsroom, helps manage our facebook and Twitter chat and learns the ropes of blogging.

If you want to look at my bio at The Scoop, head over to Emma’s website- click this link. It will take you to my short bio 🙂

So this month, I help Emma manage her Facebook page, The Scoop On Nutrition page, together with Adelaide Giddens. Everyday, either Adelaide or myself, update The Scoop Facebook page on the latest nutrition news. Follow The Scoop on Nutrition Facebook page for an up-2-date nutrition news- and you will hear from me daily 🙂

I’m very very excited to be the sub editor of the month! I even joined my first #EatKit, monthly Twitter chat hosted by Catherine Saxelby of Foodwatch and Emma. It was really great to get in touch and hear from others and chat for an hour. Last night we talked about home-grown fruit and vegetables and urban foraging. How exciting was that!

Another exciting news is my graduation! I finally graduated, wearing the academic dress and all that, last Friday, 12/04/2013. It was such an eventful day. Graduated as Masters of Nutrition and Dietetic, from the University of Sydney. Very proud of myself 😀 a dietitian now, no longer a student!

My parents and sister flew up here from Indonesia to be with me on this special day. Below are pictures from my graduation day 🙂

me and my closest friends at uni- study partners, lunch partners, travelling partners, dancing partners- sisters! (from left: Anastasia Hourdas, Candy Lin and me) missing another friend- Michelle Ho

 

me and my family (from the left: my brother, my sister, mum, me and dad) missing my brother, Daniel, who is currently at Seattle

and then there is me. wearing Indonesian kebaya top and Dedittie’s sarong skirt

I want to also specially thank my family, mum, dad, brothers and sister for all the prayer and support for me, you have always been there for me- whenever I need the most.

Special thanks to my friends, Anastasia Hourdas, Candi Lin, and Michelle Ho, and all the MND 2012 girls and boy (you know who you all are!)- and lastly but not least- my special person, Pranav Gore for always always always been there for me, through my happiness and sorrow, you have always been my shoulders to cry, my ears to complain and my other hand to clap.

until next time, peeps!