Stir-fry French Beans (Malay style)

I love french beans cooked in any way ..steamed, blanced or stir-fried.  This time I am posting a more typical malay style stir-fried french beans.  Typically, the ingredients consists of chilli, onion, garlic and dried shrimps or anchovies.  You can use any vege of your choice.  I can have this on its own or with hot steaming rice with no other condiments.  You can make it spicy by adding bird's eye chilli or make it less spicy by removing the chilli seeds.   

I used my trusty old pestle and mortar because I love the biting to the bits of chilli and onion.  I always find using it gives your dish a better flavour.

New kitchen appliance .. not all

Being a full time working mom and the need to cook for the family requires a lot of planning and time management.  In order to get all these done without going crazy, I am always in a lookout for applicances that can help me work more efficiently.  So this post is about my latest addition to my kitchen that I got for myself, well except for the happy call pan which is really not new though :)   I love the happy call pan (do a search and you find loads of infor about it) and it is currently very very popular in this part of the world.   It is generally a flip pan where you can cook both sides.  What you see in the picture is korean chicken stew that I made using this pan.  It is non-stick (not teflon) and works like a pressure cooker too.  So cooking dishes like potatoes, carrots and meat is a breeze.   I use this almost everyday as I like to do my omelette and reheating my patties with it.  Oh, I do potatoes with it too :) 

Another one which I just purchased yesterday night as it was on offer.  I have been holding back in getting

Baked Banana Pie

I have been thinking about the famous baked banana pie from the eastern part of singapore when my dad bought a bunch of local bananas for the girls.  As much as the kids love to eat bananas, it was way to much for them to consume within a few days.  So I went about searching for THE baked banana recipe that looks similar to the famous pie.  I remember vividly the flavour of banana and coconut and this particular recipe kind of hit the jackpot.  It is not difficult to make and it is delicious.   Will I make this again?  Yes I will :)

Easy Roasted/Char Siew Chicken

This is an easy dish which you can make using either regular wok or happycall pan if you have.  For this, I used my happycall pan because it cuts short the cooking time. 

I got the recipe from a booklet given to me when I bought a hard anodised wok from Tangs a few years ago.  I totally forgotten all about it until I found it recently while cleaning up my room.  This is a very simple dish, you can have this with plain rice, chicken rice or even wanton or chicken noodles, chinese style.  You can also use it to make pau fillings.  I used chicken for my version but you can use other white meat to your liking.

Easy Chicken Briyani

Starting early this month, I always prepare a menu list for the week for my family.  Simply because I currently don't have a helper and have to prepare the meals early in the morning before I go to work.  My 2 older kids go home straight from school and I have to make sure that they have food for lunch :)   Weekday mornings are crazy for me so I usually whip something easy and one of them is this.  Initially the idea was to throw everything in into the rice cooker but plan changed when I found that I have a bottle of Roganjosh curry paste in the cabinet. 

What I did was to cook the rice (no not plain rice) in the rice cooker.  While the rice is cooking, I do the chicken roganjosh.  Once the rice is 90% cooked, I pour the chicken roganjosh on top of the cooked rice and let it cook further.  This is what I got.  It is missing chopped coriander and toasted cashews .. my bad because I totally forgotten all about it.

Harry Potter cupcakes

A friend ordered a HarryPotter cupcakes for her son who is a big fan of the series.  12 pieces of chocolate fudge cupcakes with chocolate ganache.  It was my first theme cupcakes and actually had great time making them.  Let see what I can do with the balance coloured fondant :)

Spaghetti with Chicken and Mushroom White Sauce

You won't believe that this recipe is from my daughter's child care centre.  Recently, the centre held a food demo of the kids' favourite dish,  actually the program was held to encourage family bonding activity.  My youngest pestered me to cook this for the weekend and so I relented.

You should know that this was a serving for her :)

I won't really call this quick and easy.  Quick and easy would mean to use canned soup *LOL* but of course, from scratch is still the best.  For this dish, it involves 2 steps.  You need to prepare the white sauce first then followed by the chicken and mushroom sauce.  I promise it is not difficult but you can prepare the white sauce a day ahead to make it easier for you.

Slice Fish Noodles

I love anything soupy especially when it comes to noodles.  Whenever I have a chance I will get myself a bowl of sliced fish noodle soup.   This time round, instead of buying I decided to do a homemade version.  To get a good tasting broth, you need to simmer the soup on the stove for about 1hr or so.  Due to time constraint, I decided to use my pressure cooker instead.   There is not much ingredients used for the soup base.  I used about 2 medium size toman fish bones.  You can use other types of fish bone that you like.  As for noodles, it is optional.  You can have it with rice too.