L for lemon for #AtoZChallenge: lemon-flavored tomato mozzarella salad recipe

Lemon is a versatile Citrus fruit, which is rich in vitamin C.



Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) reminds me on Graduation & friends forever. I am very grateful for all the friendships with wonderful, lovely, inspiring people of diverse age and cultural background. You all have opened my eyes and heart to cherish a simply beautiful life.


"As we go on
We remember
All the times we
Had together
And as our lives change
Come whatever
We will still be
Friends Forever"

For #AtoZChallenge on 2014 April 14 Mon, I lovingly present a recipe of an Italian classic salad of tomato and mozzarella, dressed in lemon juice by ServicefromHeart.

We cherish savoring the wonderful combination of sweet red tomatoes, creamy white mozzarella, and fragrant green basil leaves in Italian restaurants. This classic salad originated from Campania in Italy - affectionately known as Insalata Caprese (Capri-style salad) - can be quickly and easily prepared at our home too.

Mozzarella is a semi-soft cheese originally from Southern Italy. Fresh mozzarella is white and high in moisture, hence it is best consumed fast after it is made, preferably by the next day. If we need to buy an imported mozzarella, choose low-moisture mozzarella.

Servings: 2
Preparation time: ~ 5 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 2 ripe tomatoes, sliced
♥ 250 g mozzarella cheese, sliced
♥ fresh basil leaves
♥ 2 tbsp virgin olive oil
♥ 1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
♥ 1 tbsp lemon juice
♥ 1/2 tsp pepper, freshly ground
♥ 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
1. To make salad dressing, mix oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper.
2. Slice tomatoes and mozzarella.
3. Arrange slices in small dishes.
4. Sprinkle with dressing.
5. Garnish with basil leaves.

Tips:
♥ 1 ripe avocado makes a wonderful additional ingredient to this recipe.
♥ To enjoy this recipe as a main course instead of an appetizer, serve with garlic toasts. 

Recipes that I also love:
♥ Meyer lemon pudding @ The Galley Gormet by Nicole
♥ Lemon Macaroon by my sister LukSunshine
♥ Baked Lemon Salmon with Creamy Dill Sauce @ Cooking Classy by Jaclyn
♥ Lemon Pistachio Cupcakes @ A Night Owl by Kimberly

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipe, especially for salad!

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140414

♥ Imagine simple happiness ♥

Imagine ... waking up to gaze on beautiful blue sky
admiring the dancing leaves that gently moves by the wind
seeing sunset from your window
watching a loving couple chatting
dancing kite with red, green, blue, and white light on the twilight sky

holding a baby sleeping calmly on your arm
gazing at his little lips and long eyelashes
simple bliss of life!

A month ago, I had them all and feel very blessed.
How I wish I could share all these with you!

Create reading experience #readxp that makes us happy and wise

When I was studying in Malaysia, one of my favorite activities (homework) was to write about reading experience (读书心得). The homework greatly helped me in learning Chinese Mandarin and had encouraged me to be a more optimistic person than ever.

When we jot down our reading experience, we clarify our thoughts and understandings. We are also doing our future selves a favor. We could quickly recall what we learned from a non-fiction book or instantly re-enjoy the pleasure or excitement we experienced from a story book.

To create reading experience, we can write, doodle, draw, take photographs, record audio notes or videos. Use approaches that we like best.

Our reading experience can be as simple as a word or a picture.

Things that we can also include in our reading experience:
♥ book title, author(s), publishers
♥ summary
♥ ideas
♥ inspirations
♥ questions
♥ impressions
♥ feelings
♥ quotes
♥ review

The summary section can simply be main gist of the book, in a sentence, a paragraph, or a list.

The idea section can include ideas straight from the book or ideas that we conceive upon integrating our existing knowledge with the new one from the book.

Keeping a note of quotes is useful to train our mind. Quotes can serve as advices or affirmations that nourish our soul. Positive quotes can act as instant switches in time of crisis, to quickly and gently shift our moods and emotions away from negativity.

Finally, the review section can include things (e.g. contents, plots, styles) that inspires us, things that can be better, or comparisons with other books.

Writing reading experience is similar to documenting our travel experience. When we travel, our minds and bodies travel. When we read, our minds travel. We can enhance our reading experience by using more imaginations and discussing with others who have read the book or arguing with the authors (known as active reading). Note down our questions. Sometimes, if not many times, we may not get the answers from the authors, but from other people.

Since 2014, I started to be more organized in my reading adventures. We believe that sharing is caring, so I try my best to share my reading experience in easy to digest posts.

To facilitate faster search, try #readxp for the blog, Twitter and Instagram of ServicefromHeart. You are always welcome to share your #readxp!

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140214

A list of over 100 salad ingredients

We love salad. Eating greens is good for our health. I favor eating food produced locally (or at least regionally). This way, our food is relatively fresh and we also support our farmers and food producers. When I write this post in early 2014, we are currently living in Singapore. Whenever possible, I try to buy Singapore products, or regional ones, e.g. greens from Malaysia, cherry tomatoes from Thailand, long beans from Indonesia. 



On another spectrum, I also believe in eating food with recipe inspired globally. In my childhood, the concept of salad is probably nearest to lalap (an Indonesian dish). Consuming lalap with fried chicken or fish, steamed rice and a pinch of sambal terasi chili is really a treat to our taste buds. Commonly used ingredients for lalap include cucumber (timun), tomato (tomat), cabbage (kol), lettuce (selada), long bean (kacang panjang), papaya leaves (daun pepaya), sweet potato leaves (daun singkong), basil (kemangi). It is the basil that gives the fragrance. 

Then, when I lived in England, I grew to appreciate salad even more. My favorite greens include rocket leaves and baby spinach leaves. Crunchy and refreshing salads are fast to prepare and heart warming companion to bowls of steamed rice or roasted meals.

Salad can be colorful and offers a wide range of tastes and textures. At first, the thought of salad directly implies a cold meal, but salad can be served warm - or as a yin-yang mixture of cold and hot, featuring fresh vegetables topped with hot fish, toasted nuts, or tossed in a warm dressing before serving. I really love meals that incorporate different temperatures!

See a little spreadsheet note of mine on ingredients for salad. There are more than 100 ingredients we can choose from to mix and match! Whenever I come across inspirational recipes, I would add on to the spreadsheet. Ingredients in bold are those that I often use for our homemade salad.

For the upcoming #AtoZChallenge that I am taking part in April 2014, I am going to prepare blog posts on food (many of them are delicious ingredients for salad), to tell a little story about these wonderful food choices to baby Ren and hopefully other children will love them too! Storytelling of food can indeed increase the appeal of salad and food to children.


Check also our other #5minutemeal recipe, especially for salad!

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140210

Kinpira of capsicum and water apple recipe by ServicefromHeart

Kinpira (金平 or きんぴら) simply means sauté and simmer. It is a Japanese method of stir-frying shredded or julienned vegetables quickly in a fragrant and spicy oil. 

This recipe is created thanks to the lack of red sweet pepper in the NTUC Fairprice today. Therefore, besides buying a green pepper and a yellow pepper, I thought of using water apple for its brilliant red color as an ingredient for tonight kinpira dish. 

Water apple is also known as water cherry, rose apple, pearl jumbu, jambu air. In my childhood, I enjoyed it as an ingredient for rujak in Jakarta, Indonesia. It tastes crunchy and sweet, a sweet treat on hot days! The thought of rojak also prompted me to include a slight amount of peanut into the recipe. 

Sweet pepper is also known as bell pepper, capsicum or simply just pepper. They are rich sources of antioxidants and vitamin C. I wanted to buy at least a red pepper because if its higher nutritional contents than a green pepper, but it is not available today. Try to be creative by thinking of a new recipe to experiment & savor. 

"Necessity is the mother of invention," The Republic, Book II, 369c, Plato.

I enjoyed this meal. Hope you will try it too!

Servings: 2

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

♥ 1 tbsp sesame oil

♥ 1 yellow sweet pepper, de-seeded, julienned

♥ 1 green sweet pepper, de-seeded, julienned

♥ 3 water apples, de-seeded, thinly sliced

♥ 2 tbsp white sesame seed, toasted

♥ 1 tsp soy sauce / shoyu

♥ 1 tsp peanut butter

♥ 1 chili sachet* 

♥ pinch of pepper

* The chili sachet already contains sugar. To substitute this, you can use 1tsp sugar and 1 tsp chili flakes. 

Directions:

1. Heat sesame oil in a frying pan over high heat.

2. Lower the heat to medium. Toast sesame seeds.

2. Add the sweet peppers and water apple. 

3. Sautee for 3-4 minutes until they turn brighter in color.

4. Add soy sauce, peanut butter, chili, pepper, wine.  

5. Stir until soy sauce has evaporated. 

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipe & particularly simple sweet pepper kinpira recipe. 

With love,

ServicefromHeart

20140206

Easy porridge recipe using rice cooker by ServicefromHeart

This Chinese style porridge recipe takes only ~ 5 minutes to prepare. Very convenient yet healthy & filling! Highly recommend this meal for breakfast or brunch to kick start a productive day. Children surely like this one-dish meal too, so this recipe is one of mothers' favorite choice.

Servings: 2

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes (depends on the type of rice cooker)

Ingredients:

♥ 1/2 cup Jasmine rice grains

♥ 1 tbsp anchovies*

♥ 2 tbsp sesame oil  

♥ 2 carrots 

♥ 2 tbsp minced meat 

♥ 1 tube tofu

* I prefer to use anchovies to substitute for salt. 

Directions:

1. Wash rice grains. Instead of adding water to reach only the first line of your index finger when you immerse it on top of rice grains, add more water to reach halfway of first and second line. 

2. Wash and chop carrots, minced meat, tofu into bite-size chunks. Add all cut ingredients and anchovies to the rice cooker.

3. Cook slightly longer than the rice cooker takes to cook rice, until you get desirable soft texture. Since I am using an antique rice cooker (a gift from mother in law), it takes me ~ 40 minutes. 

4. After the porridge is cooked, quickly take the rice pot out. Quickly add sesame oil and mix*. Be careful, it is hot! Then, cover the lid for a while to let the sesame fragrance sip in. 

* If you open the lid for too long, without mixing in oil, the porridge will stick to the bottom. 

Tips:

♥ The 3 main ingredients are rice grains, anchovies and sesame oil. For more nutrients, add at least a vegetable (e.g. carrot, beans) and a protein source (e.g. minced meat, tofu). If you have more time for preparation, you can always add more ingredients to create bowls of colorful porridge. 

♥ Sesame oil is really the secret of jazzing up simple and relatively plain meal. Among all the sesame oil that I have tried, I favor the sesame oil of Ghee Hiang Baby brand (www.ghee-hiang.com) manufactured in Penang, Malaysia, using methods and techniques learned from Fujian, China. 

♥ This porridge appears similar to Cantonese style congee, but this rice cooker recipe is more convenient to prepare as it does not require constant stirring.

♥ If you want tastier porridge, serve with crunchy peanuts, crispy fried shallots or chopped chili (which can be prepared in advance and stored in a screw top jar). My Teochew mother in law prefers less salty option, so porridge straight from the rice cooker pot made her happy. 

This recipe has been inspired by:

♥ http://www.mummyicancook.com/2013/03/teochew-porridge-and-basics.html

♥ http://kitchentigress.blogspot.sg/2009/08/teochew-porridge-best-comfort-food-bar.html

♥ last but not least, baby Ren

Thank you very much!

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipe. 

With love,

ServicefromHeart

20140206

Easy Soboro with pink steamed rice recipe by ServicefromHeart

When my mother visited us, she made me finely chopped dishes for my lunch box (bento). Now, whenever I think of Soboro (そぼろ), I would be happy and grateful for her and her tremendous love.

In brief, soboro is finely chopped dishes of meat, fish, egg or vegetables that are served sprinkled onto or mixed with rice.

Servings: 3

Preparation & cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

♥ 3/4 cup rice

♥ 2 eggs

♥ long beans / green beans

♥ 2 carrots 

♥ 1tsp anchovies 

♥ salt

♥ 2 tsp sugar

♥ 2 tbsp sesame oil 

Directions:

1. Steam rice with beet root to obtain pink / red colored rice. 

2. To make egg soboro (iritamago), mix eggs, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp anchovies in a bowl. Cook over a frying pan over medium heat. Use 2 wooden spoons (or 2 pairs of wooden chopsticks), keep stirring the egg mixture to allow them to form fine granules. 

3. Cut long beans into small pieces of ~0.7 cm in length. Boil in salted water until crisp tender. 

4. Place chopped carrots, 1 tsp sugar, pinch of salt in a small pan and boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer until the carrot is tender. 

5. Serve carrot, beans, and egg soboro with rice. Drizzle generously with sesame oil. 

Tips:

♥ For lighter pink tone of steamed rice, use beet roots that were used for cooking soup. For red tone of rice, use fresh beet roots.

♥ For better taste, add 1 tsp of rice wine / sake / mirin / white wine when you make egg soboro or carrot soboro. 

♥ For more variations and colorful soboro, consider sweet peppers soboro, tofu soboro (iridofu), meat (niku) soboro in soy sauce / oyster sauce. 

♥ Sesame oil really brings the fragrance out. Among all the sesame oil that I have tried, I favor the sesame oil of Ghee Hiang Baby brand (www.ghee-hiang.com) manufactured in Penang, Malaysia, using methods and techniques learned from Fujian, China.

Simple and easy pasta with creamy yogurt sauce by ServicefromHeart

This recipe is cream-free but creamy enough thanks to the yogurt. 

Try different types of pasta for fun! Besides the common spaghetti, linguine and macaroni, how is about pasta in interesting shapes and sizes? Kids will surely like them. 

Two things serve as inspirations for this recipe:

♥ Looking at a container of yogurt in our refrigerator this morning, has encouraged me to think of a new meal for our family. It is always good to finish our food before their expiry dates. 

♥ I really love Guesteau's motto, "Anyone can cook", from the Disney movie Ratatouille. It is very encouraging to you and me! The movie is about Remy who is dying to become a chef and features heart-warming delicious treats to our eyes.

Servings: 2

Preparation & Cook time: 15 minutes 

Ingredients:

♥ ~150g dried pasta 

♥ 1 tbsp olive oil

♥ 1 cup plain / Greek yogurt

♥ 6 cloves minced garlic 

♥ 1 tsp anchovies (preferred) / pinch of salt

♥ 1/2 onion / red onion (optional)

♥ 1 tsp dried shrimps (optional) 

♥ 1 tbsp herbs, chopped (optional) 

♥ pinch of pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Boil water in a pot to cook pasta.

2. Meanwhile, wash and mince garlic, onion, dried shrimps.

3. Heat olive oil on a frying pan. 

4. Sautee minced garlic, onion, dried shrimps, anchovies. 

5. Over medium heat, add pasta, yogurt, herbs, pepper. Mix well.  

Tips:

♥ Try whole wheat pasta that contains minerals such as magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, selenium and manganese.

♥ You can substitute olive oil with butter for creamier texture. 

♥ Instead of weighing ~70g of dried pasta per person, I use my palm to wrap around a bunch of long pasta as a quick measurement. 

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipe. 

Almost Famous Amos crunchy chocolate cookies recipe by LukSunshine

Lunar New Year 2014 is approaching. Today, I am craving for chocolate cookies! This recipe was shared by my sister. Delicious food and sweet treats can always happily remind us on our loved ones who have made them or something similar for us.

Preparation time: 30 minutes + 2 hours for mixture
Cooking time: 30 minutes

For mixture to incubate for at least 2 hours:
♥ 1 large egg
♥ vanilla extract
♥ 1/2 teaspoon coffee oil / coffee extract
Ingredients:
♥ 226 gr (1 cup) unsalted butter
♥ 200 gr (1 cup) light brown sugar
♥ ½ cup (65 gr) ground almond
♥ ½ cup (45 gr) quick oats
♥ 275 gr (2¾ cup) all purpose flour
♥ 1 teaspoon baking powder
♥ 2 tablespoon (10 gr) cocoa powder
♥ Pinch of salt
♥ ½ cup of nuts of your choice
♥ ¾ cup chocolate chips/ chocolate chunks

Directions:

Draw My Life Map : Indonesia - Malaysia - Singapore - world

This mini video of Draw My Life Map (URL:http://youtu.be/C5dUrELzzeI) is inspired by an exercise for a course of storytelling by Novoed. 

I used mouse (using digitized pen will be better) to draw in SpeedyPainter (speedypainter.altervista.org), which is freely available. For editing, I used Movie Maker.

Transcript:
Hello friends
I am going to share with you my little life map.
Sit back and relax.

I spent my early months of life in a little farm in Sumatera, Indonesia - a beautiful emerald of equator. Before I turned 1 year old, Daddy and Mommy moved to Jakarta for a better life.The capital was entirely different from the rural area of Sumatera where we came from.

At age three, I had a lovely baby brother.
His short stay with us reminds me forever on the precious yet vulnerable life.
I dearly miss him!
Several years later, I had a sister and another much younger brother, whom I love very much!

My childhood was simple and happy, with schools, friends, books and TVs.
I enjoyed riding a bicycle, watching MacGyver and SeaQuest episodes on local TV channel, relying heavily on the subtitles. Not many people spoke English in Jakarta at that time.
My favorite books include the translated versions of The Famous Five novels by British author Enid Blyton.
After completing my homework, I eagerly looked forward to join the adventures and picnics of Julian, Dick, Anne, George and her dog Timmy. Timmy would do anything for her, such a great loyalty!
I dreamed that when I was reaching their ages, I would go for such adventures with my dear friends like The Famous Five did.
Many years later, a part of the dream was realized in my young adulthood, when I occasionally helped my housemate to walk his playful golden retriever that loves to chase tennis balls, ducks and ducklings, swimming at the River Cam.

Back to my childhood.
A riot happened in Jakarta. That event severely affected many people.
They lost everything, including their loved ones.
The event also changed the course of my simple and peaceful life with my family.
Daddy and Mommy were determined to work harder so that they could afford to send me to a safer place.

It was the first time I applied for a passport and flied with a single-way ticket to a neighboring country: Malaysia.
At the beginning, living far far away from Daddy, Mommy, my sister and brother, I often felt sad and worried about my family.
It was tough, r-e-a-l-l-y tough!

Fortunately in Malaysia, I was blessed with kind friends and encouraging teachers. Thanks to them, I looked forward going to school, to learn, to chat everyday. I am forever grateful to them. For the first time of my life, I learned Chinese Mandarin at school. I found the Chinese letters beautiful, every stroke can carry feelings, emotions and aspirations.
Somehow, some of these beautiful letters and words transpire over five-thousand-years of wisdom.
I fell in love with many idioms and quotes, especially those related to happiness, nature and people.
Let me share one of my favorite:
笑口常开 / Xiao4Kou3Chang2Kai1.
It means "Smile & Laugh Often".
I wish you, my dear friends, 笑口常开!

During our high school days, we wanted so much to go to a university, so that we could train in our chosen disciplines, pursue our dream careers, earn a decent living to take care of our ageing parents and future children.
My friends and I worked hard in our study. 
Learning by heart is rewarding, generous people have allowed me to come to Singapore with a scholarship for my undergraduate study. It means a lot for me. 
Thank you from my deepest heart.

So I come to Singapore - the Little Red Dot of Southeast Asia.
On Yunnan Campus, I made many friends, learned from my professors and peers, further developed deeper passions for life and learning, worked part-time, volunteered in several activities, including a mentorship program organized by the Welfare Service Club. We also performed song signings for Christmas!  

Since then, my passions have brought me to many places worldwide, learning from and sharing with people who have become dear friends. 
Places shape people, and people shape places too.

Fast forward to now, I am very grateful with my life, my experiences (bad and good), and most importantly, the people who have walked with me, have loved me and whom I love.
Although everyday I face new challenges, I choose to see them as opportunities to learn, to be creative, and to grow in our lives.
There are many people whose lives are far from the acceptable and their ideals.
What can we do for them?
How is about choosing to be happy and grateful?
Being grateful creates simple happiness.
When we are happy, our minds relax and we can conceive meaningful ideas and solutions.
When we are happy, we can spread our joy.
"Happiness is contagious".
I tell myself to make at least three people smile everyday.
It's not that difficult, I am sure you can do much better than me.
Being alive is a miracle.
Being happy is a choice.

Kimchi pancake with yoghurt mixture recipe by servicefromheart

 



Servings: 2
Preparation & cook Time : 10 minutes
 
Ingredients for pancake mixture:
♥ 1/2 cup cake flour (or all purpose flour)
♥ 1/4 cup sweet potato flour
♥ 3/4  cup of yoghurt & slight amount of water
♥ 1 tbsp anchovies
♥ 2 tbsp chopped kimchi to ensure its tangy fragrant is spread evenly
♥ 1 tsp sesame oil

Directions:
1. Heat olive oil over medium heat.
2. Pour pancake mixture to the frying pan, lower the heat to between-medium-and-low.
3. After a side turns golden brown, flip to cook the other side.
4. Garnish with your favorite vegetables / fruits.

Tips:
♥ If you like crispy pancake, ensure you spread the mixture thinly on frying pan.
♥ Serve the hot pancake with cold salad, the yin-yang sensation of hot and cold brings delicious treats to our taste buds.