Roast chicken wing

This was tonight's dinner. It was served with mashed potato & pasta. The wings are marinated with similar sauce as the pork chops previously posted. They are then roasted for 50 minutes at 200°C. The wings were still lack of taste, probably due to less than a day of marinating.

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Honey pork chop with mashed potato

Last Sunday, I went for grocery shopping and saw some nice pieces of pork chop for $9 per kg. So, I bought some and cooked us a simple dinner with mashed potato and boiled carrot.

3 pieces pork chop
2 tbspns soy sauce
1 tbspn oyster sauce
1 tbspn honey
1 tspn oil

Marinate for at least an hour in the refrigerator. The longer the marinate the juicier the meat. I left it overnight. Grill the pork on a slightly oiled pan until golden brown. Serves 2.

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Baked pasta with sun-dried tomatoes

This was a simple yet tasty lunch we had on Good Friday.

2-3 cups of pasta
1/2 carrot, shredded
5 tbspns corn kernels
2 tomatoes, sun-dried & diced
250g Remano Pasta Bake sauce
dashes of Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta as instructed on the packaging. Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Mixed all ingredient except the cheese in a oven-safe bowl. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the mixture. Bake for 15 minutes. Serves 2.

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Pancakes

This is a simple recipe gathered from multiple sources and tweaked to what I have and prefer. This is my first attempt.

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 tspn salt
1 egg
2 tbspn mayonnaise (as substitute for butter)
1 cup skim milk (or just enough to make a pourable batter)
2 tbspns sugar

Combine all dry ingredient. Add in the egg and mayonnaise, one at a time. Add in the milk small portion at a time while stirring the mixture into a batter. Cook spoonfuls of batter on a non-stick pan (or any pan, lightly oiled). When the top starts to bubble, turn over and cook until golden brown. Serve 2-3.

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Roast fish with capsicum and tomato

We bought some whole fish from the market today and wanted to test out our oven. This is what we had for dinner. Though the name is a bit fancy, it is really an 'ang-moh' version of steamed fish teo-chew style. The silver bream a.k.a. yellowfin bream is a native fish here and its taste is quite ok without much muddy flavor.

1 whole silver bream (or red snapper for substitute)
1 tspn oil
1/2 green capsicum
1 lemon, thinly sliced
2-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1-2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
basil leaves
salt & pepper to taste

Rinse the fish and dry with paper towel. Cut 3 or 4 vertical slashes to the bone on each side of the fish. Brush the outside with oil. Sprinkle the outside & cavity with salt & pepper. Place 2 or 3 lemon slices, half of the garlic and half of the basil into the fish cavity. Brush the bottom of a pan with oil. Lay the fish in a prepared pan and arrange the remaining lemon slices on top. Scatter the capsicum and remaining garlic around the fish. Preheat over to 220 degree C. Roast the fish for 15 minutes. Remove from oven & scatter the tomatoes around the fish. Continue to roast for another 10 minutes, or until the fish is cooked. Remove from oven and transfer the fish to a large platter. Discard the lemon slices on top. Scatter remaining basil on top of the fish. Arrange the tomatoes and capsicum around the fish. Serve at once.

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A view from my window

After much reading about astrophotography with a digital camera lately, I wanted to practice what I have learnt from the books onto some pixels. Fortunately the part of the night sky I see from my window is pretty dark. Stars as faint as 7.3 magnitude can be seen from this spot with a binocular. Today was a good if not a perfect time for my maiden astrophotography shot because in addition to having a window opening up to a dark sky the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, is positioned just nicely outside. Unlike conventional photography, the night sky photos are still considered very dim and they require special image processing technique to enhance the starlight. The night sky has to be taken in multiple snapshots only to be combined (or stacked) together later with special software. I used Lynkeos for my edit below.

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Sirius (the brightest star in the night sky) and the constellation Canis Major can be seen clearly in the photo. Also pointed out are 2 open star clusters, M41 in the same constellation, and M47 in the constellation Puppis.

Update: In case you are wondering where is Sirius, Canis Major and Puppis, read here and here.