Keep That Cup

Last post I mentioned visiting Loysel's Toy for brunch on Saturday.  I was doing my due diligence on the menu and noticed that they sell KeepCups.  I immediately resolved to buy one.

Have you heard of KeepCups?  Essentially they're a barista-standard reusable coffee/tea cup but actually look fantastic.

You can even design your own - pimp my cup!



This is my cup - purple and pink!



I have to say I was left with a nasty, non-coffee related taste in my mouth when I took my KeepCup to the coffee shop in the mall under work (Spinelli's).  They give a discount if you bring in your reusable coffee cup, but neglect to mention it has to be a Spinelli's reusable cup.  They refused to give me a discount for my KeepCup.

Basically this implied to me that Spinelli's doesn't actually care about doing their bit for the environment at all - their campaign is to get people to buy their ugly reusable cups.  Does seem somewhat hypocritical when the principal of a reusable cup is to reduce waste.

Anyway, on to more positive things.

Today marks the one year anniversary of our arrival in Singapore.  It seems incredible how fast time has flown!  This time last year I was nervously anticipating my first day at work...

I would have loved to spend the time cooking something special to mark the occasion, but we didnt' manage to get home from work until just after 7pm... what to whip up in under an hour?

Black-Eyed Pea and Roast Vege Salad

• 1 small eggplant
• 1/8 pumpkin (sounds precise, just get a small chunk)
• Couple of garlic cloves
• 1/4 pack feta cheese
• Handful rocket
• 1 tin black-eyed peas
• Chicken
• Ground garlic, cumin, coriander seeds (a shake each)
• Salt and pepper

1. Heat oven to about 180 deg C
2. Slice eggplant, salt both sides and set aside for about 10 minutes.  Rinse well with water, pat dry.
3. Chop pumpkin (roughly same size as eggplant) and throw pumpkin and eggplant into a roasting dish with a good slug of olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Pop garlic cloves in roasting dish and cook in oven until all are soft and eggplant is starting to caramalise (approx 30 mins, don't forget to stir veges frequently to prevent sticking).
5. Rinse black-eye peas and drain well.
6. Heat a pan with some olive oil, toss peas in ginger, cumin and coriander seeds and fry briefly.  Drain on paper towels.
7. Dice chicken, season with salt and pepper and cook in used pan.
8. When veges are cooked (don't forget to pop roasted garlic out of shell), mix peas, veges, rocket, chicken, feta on a platter, drizzle with olive oil and serve.

I love roasted veges

I was planning on using chickpeas but the supermarket was out of stock, so black-eyed peas was the next best alternative.  They were a bit mushy out of the tin, so if I was repeating I would probably go with quinoa or lentils if chickpeas weren't available.

Remember to rinse salted eggplant really well otherwise they will be really salty after roasting.  Don't neglect this step, even if you are in a huge rush.

P.S. A glass of NZ pinot gris went beautifully with this (and the pre-dinner glass on it's own was just as beautiful!)