The creme de la creme of coffee - Blue Mountain

This morning, I finally tasted the limited edition UCC Blue Mountain freeze dried coffee which I'd bought from Carrefour some time back. This is despite I still have not finished the bottle of organic Columbian freeze dried coffee. I think it is a limited edition because I haven't seen this blue mountain coffee anywhere else, not even at Isetan Orchard where there is currently a promotion on UCC coffee. This blue mtn version comes in a small bottle about half the size of the usual UCC freeze dried coffee, yet it costs almost double their usual price!



Anyway, the blue mtn coffee (with evaporated milk) tasted very very smooth, with no hint of bitterness at all. Whatever acidity there is in it was so very nuanced, that I think it can be drank black, and even a non-coffee drinker like that SO can drink it.

Notes about this coffee (from Wikipedia):
Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is a classification of coffee grown in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. The best lots of Blue Mountain coffee are noted for their mild flavor and lack of bitterness. Over the last several decades, this coffee has developed a reputation that has made it one of the most expensive and sought-after coffees in the world. In addition to its use for brewed coffee, the beans are the flavor base of Tia Maria coffee liqueur.

Thai Pineapple Rice

I've been cooking dinner yesterday and today, and cooking dishes which I would normally leave for the weekends because they require more steps, more ingredients or more preparation time. I had time to cook them because I'd been on sick leave from a toe injury...smacked my toe against the corner of the granite stone (from the water feature)! The senior doctor at the clinic was very kind and understanding...he gave me 2 days' mc to rest! *grin*

Anyway, I cooked pineapple rice using the paste from Dancing Chef. I had previously tried their Thai curry paste which tasted quite authentic and hot. I didn't cook their curry again because SO can't take the hotness, but if it's not hot, it wouldn't be authentic, right? *roll eyes*

The list of other ingredients and steps are listed at the back of the package. It's not difficult lah, except that one has prepare the cooked chicken and prawns before frying the rice. The paste is quite watery, so better make sure the cooked rice is not soggy/overcooked to start with.

As I didn't want to have bland-tasting chicken, I marinated them in some chicken stock, a bit of wine and sesame oil. I've also added chopped garlic and ginger, both of which were not called for by the recipe (only onion was listed). To me, fried rice without garlic is like soup without "body" - flat! :P


The main ingredients are chicken, prawn, pineapple, onion plus a topping of fried egg strips and spring onion. I skipped the red and green chillis as I didn't have any.

I forgot to buy fresh pineapple today, so I used canned pineapple instead - just rinse them, drain well and chop into small pieces. In fact, I gave the pineapple a little squeeze - which turn out to be necessary in order not to have wet fried rice.

Pineapple rice served with a plain salad to counter the sweet-spicy (but not hot) taste of the rice.

Oh, by the way, the rice taste good, not because my cooking is good, but the paste is good. :)

Potato salad with zing

Two weekends ago, I made potato salad - my very first potato salad, in fact. It's not a difficult dish to make, yet it's not often that I come across a version that makes me want to have second helpings. Most of the potato salad (whether home-made or purchased outside) I've tasted are rather "common", or bland even.

Hence, I'd had no inclination to make it myself...until I bought this balsamic vinegar dressing from Carrefour. The bottle of dressing has a potato salad recipe at the back.

Preparation:
I saw some potatoes from New Zealand at the supermart and decided to try them, only because they were washed and looked clean and "golden". The other ingredients not commonly found in potato salad are the black olives and green beans (cooked).


This dressing which contains the flavourful balsamic vinegar gives the potato salad an interesting zing which I like (although the SO didn't quite take to its vinegar taste). I used bacon bits instead of salami which I don't have and which I don't usually eat, anyway.


The end product

Cork remover video

How to remove a cork that's stuck in a bottle?

I found this amazing...so simple and it works! From Yahoo! Video.