Lasagna

This is also a great dish to make and can last you for a few days if you make it in large portions.I remembered that it took me 3 times before I actually manage to bake one that hold all the layers up, i.e not watery. Simple as it sounds, I just had to leave the lasagna to cool for 10minutes before cutting into it. Haha, can't believe that took 3 attempts :P

Anyhoo, this is my simple version of making a lasagna. Thanks to D, he loves lasagna so I get to keep practicing!

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 garlic cloves, chopped into fine pieces
• 1/4 onion, chopped into fine pieces
  
• 250g mince beef
• 250g Mozzarella
• 1 bowl grated Parmesan
• 170g - 1 packet dolmio brand tomato and basil sauce
• 150g baby button mushrooms
• Italian herb for spice
• Dried Basil for spice
• 1/2 tbsp dried parsley
  
• 1/2 tbsp Salt plus extra for taste
• 250g of Sainsbury white sauce / béchamel sauce mix with sprinkled parsley
• 3 Layers of lasagne sheets (ones that you don't need to dip in water)
  

Method

1. Cook the garlic and onions in a pot/pan together. Add the mushrooms and 2 tbsp of water and cook until the mushrooms shrink. 
2. Add the mince and fry until 3/4 cooked before adding the tomatoe sauces. This can be seen when the meat colour turne from red to brown.
3. Add seasoning to the mix and let it simmer for a bit. Add cornflour if mixture is too watery. Allow the mixture to cool.
   
4. Preheat oven to 200degC. Prep up a square 25cm x 25cm square pan.
5. Add dried parsley to the white / bechamel sauce and mix. Set aside.
6. Layers consist of (starting from the bottom): 

• 1/2 Beef and mushroom mixture
• Lasagna sheets (break it to cover the tin entirely. Don't overlap the sheets on top of each other.)
  
• 1/2 White sauce
• 1/2 Mozzarella & Parmesan cheese
• Lasagna sheets
• 1/2 Beef and mushroom mixture
• Lasagna sheets
  
• 1/2 White sauce
  
• 1/2 Mozzarella & Parmesan cheese (gives a nice chewy top)

Cover the tin with an aluminum foil and bake for 20 mins. Remove the foil and bake for another 15-20 mins or until the top layer browns to your suit.

Here's a nice video clip as well by Kraft if you're more of a visual person:

Cafe East

Yes I'm back! Holiday was ammmaaazziinnnggg but I must say I miss my baking a whole lot. But I gotta get the laundry and photos out of the way as soon as I can!

Anyway, the day before we left, we headed out to our favourite restaurant Cafe East. We were actually at the O2 Arena watching the ATP Tour, and if not for that we wouldn't be heading all the way there. Talk about convenience, heh.

This restaurant is by far the most reasonable Vietnamese restaurant I have been to, but alas their menu hasn't gotten enough variety as Song Que.

Instead of the normal summer or deep fried springrolls, we opted for a different dish. It's still a spring roll dish, which consist of mushrooms wrapped with rice flour, topped up with a type of luncheon meat, fried onions and raw bean sprouts. Of course, served with yummy fish oil. There were about 8 pieces at least enough as an appetiser for 2.

My main course for a change was spicy prawn rice noodle soup with the usual sides of lemon, raw mint, and bean sprouts to add. This dish really clears up your nose if you have a cold!

D's dish was a bit of a let down as he was expecting a bigger portion. He had rice and pork lemon grass, in which he couldn't really taste the lemon grass.

So in conclusion (sounding like some crazy scientist) we think that their soup is their specialty on top of the rest of the other dishes, and it's worth heading to if you crave for their yummy dessert drinks and wanting a nice warm meal for the winter at a really reasonable price :)

More information:

Surrey Quays Leisure Centre, 
100 Redriff Row, London, 
SE16 7LH, UK.
Tel: 020 7252 1212‎

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OMG - A Suprise Prize from Foodie Blog Roll

OMG I won a tote bag! And this is by just leaving a comment in the contest section. Foodie Blogroll rocks! They keep on having cute contests and random prizes to give away specially to food bloggers who signs up =D. Will definitely post the prize when it arrives fer sure.

So wherever you are, if you write more than 50% about food on your blog, have been writing for more than a month, I suggest enrolling into this =)

I'm going to be away for a whole week so this blog won't be active but be sure to watch this space when I come back....toodles in the mean time!

Ironcupcake Earth: Reminder

I'm actually going to be way for a week but here's another friendly reminder to vote for me =). It starts this Friday (27th Nov) at 8pm but it's American time.

So the browser should be fully open on Sunday till Thursday (3rd Dec).

These are my cupcake entries again:

'Hidden Fruit of Eden' & 'Healthily Applelicious'

Pretty please vote for me! It's my first ever online competition. Your support is really appreciative. I've left the two posts below for you to have a read.Thank you muchly.

Cay Tre

Say what? Jokes...went out last night with a friend (Thanks Mel for introducing me to this place!) to this lovely Vietnamese place near Old Street (which is about a 40 min walk from my house if I'm adventurous, but a couple of tube stops away). And I really like this restaurant because it's the closest Vietnamese restaurant right now to our place. Haha. Talk about convenience.

Taken from my phone camera...

One thing I found uncomfortable was the layout of the menu as I couldn't really skim read as well as the restaurant had a dimmer ambience. Perhaps, I was more in a hurfishry to order so that I could chat more.

Food prices are really reasonable but they are not actually famous for their 'pho' soup dishes but I saw alot of people ordered the La Vong Grilled Fish that really look tasty and I think it's the specialty from this restaurant.

We had the yummy Banh Xeo (egg pancake dish stuff with bean sprouts, chicken and prawns wrapped with fresh green lettuce and dipped in fish sauce) and the classic Bun Sa (non soup beef on vermicelli) to try. When it arrived, we were super glad we didn't get any starters because the portion was huge!

The egg dish was excellent as the egg was thoroughly cooked to crisp, with a fair share portion of meat, accompanied by bay leaves, fish sauce and lettuce to be shared for two.

I wasn't happy with the beef vermicille dish as normally I would have my fish sauce and cut chilli served separately rather than already prepared with the dish. And alas, I couldnt really taste the lemongrass too.

I would definitely come here again of course and try their specialty dishes, seeing that this is different from the usual Vietnamese restaurants I have been. Quite a unique one too.

More information:

301 Old St
London, EC1V 9LA
020 7729 8662
http://www.vietnamesekitchen.co.uk

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