Father's day cake inspiration ...

I have yet to decide what kind of cake I will be making for Father's day. Especially now with the World Cup going on .. it's between soccer and tie maybe .. hmm Anyways, if anyone of you need some inspiration for a tie themed cake, do check this out - http://www.tiepedia.com/tie-blog/49-crafts/155-tie-cake

Lemongrass+Lime Tea

I made this a couple of weeks back when the weather was scorching hot. It's really easy to make and very refreshing especially if you have it chilled. I added lime to give it more zest. You also add little bit of Sprite or 7-UP for the slightly sweet fizziness to it.

What you need:

3 stalks lemongrass, take only the white portion and bash it a little
1 litre water
enough rock sugar - adjust according to your preference
lime juice and lime slices for garnish (optional)
plenty of ice

What you do:

1. Boil the water with the lemongrass over medium heat for about 30-45mins
2. Add rock sugar and stir till it dissolves
3. Strain it and let it cool before you chill it, add abit more cool boiled water if you think that the flavour is too overpowering
4. Serve with plenty of ice and a squeeze of lime, garnish with lime slices if you like

Beef Stew Vietnamese Style with Kway Teow (flat rice noodle)

I love vietnamese food as I find them very light and appetising. I was lucky to grab hold of a vietnamese cookbook at the library - The Vietnamese Cookbook by Diana My Tran and like the recipes. The look very simple for a FTWM like me. So I gave this one a try as it sounds delish looking at the ingredients used. I am very happy to have tried it as my family loves it. The taste is light but very satisfying. You can serve this with kway teow/noodles or bread.

Of course mine looks very very far from the authentic dish *LOL*

Here is the recipe. I added potatoes because my husband likes potatoes. You can add about 1 or 2 medium potatoes, cube

For the dipping sauce, I used store bought chicken rice chilli but you can use whatever chilli sauce that you like.

Ingredients
1 - 1.5 lb beef, cut into cubes
1 lemongrass, cut the green part off and bruised the white portion
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 carrots, cut into cubes
5C water
2-3T oil
salt to taste

Marinade
1/2t five spice powder
1/4t curry powder
1/4t chilli flakes/pepper flakes (more if you like it spicy but I omit this because my kids can't take spicy stuffs)
2T oyster sauce
2T tomato paste

Garnish
thai basil
lime wedges
hoisin sauce and chilli sauce for dipping

Method
1. Mix all the marinade ingredients and marinate the beef with it for 15mins
2. Heat pot with oil and sautee chopped onion and garlic till fragrant (don't burn the garlic)
3. Add the marinated beef and stir till it browned a little bit
4. Add water and lemongrass and let it simmer, skim off the froth and foam
5. Let it simmer for 30mins than add the carrots, salt to taste and continue simmering till the meat is tender usually about 1hr or more
6. Serve it hot with kway teow and the garnishes or just french loaves

I used my thermo pot and cooked over the stove for about 30mins then transfer the inner pot to the outer pot and let it cook for the next 6hours. The meat came out very tender.

Sliced Cheese Cheesecake

This cheese cake recipe caught my attention because it doesn't use cream cheese. Instead it uses sliced cheese which I always keep stock in the refrigerator. It is not difficult to make really and it yields a very soft cake which my kids love. It is best served chilled.

I got the recipe from myresipi.net which is originally in malay. I have translated it and make minor changes to the ingredients used.

Ingredients
5 sliced cheese
200ml fresh milk
70g butter
70g cake flour (high ratio flour)
65g sugar (original is 70g)
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. Tear cheese slices into small pieces and add to the milk in a small pot
2. Heat milk and cheese on low heat till cheese melts, stir mixture to prevent lumps
3. Add butter, let it melt and stir till well blended
4. Beat egg white till frothy and slowly add sugar and beat till glossy and stiff, leave aside
5. In another clean bowl, beat the yolks till creamy and add it to the milk mixture with the vanilla essence
6. Slowly stir in flour and gently mix till smooth
7. Then add 1/3 of the meringue and gently fold into the milk+egg+flour mixture, once blended, add the the remaining 2/3 and gently fold till you don't see any streaks
8. Pour batter into an 8 inch pan
9. Bake in a preheat oven, baine marie at 170C for 20mins and lower the temperature to 140C and bake it for further 40mins
10.Chill it first before you cut and serve

Beef + Sugar Beans in Sweet & Sour Sauce

I always associate sweet and sour sauce to be red. However this one is on a brown side due to the beef but I am still ok with it *LOL* My sister made something similar during our holiday trip to Phuket and I just have to make it at home to have it with hot steamed rice. I am red meat person and this is just nice for us. It is very easy to make, you can use your own sauce or just use the ready made ones.

Ingredients:

250-300g sliced beef, coat with a bit of cornflour (best to use for stir frying)
1 large clove garlic chopped
1 packet sweet sour sauce (you can use whatever brand that you like)
1 pack of sugar beans (sorry I can't remember the weight)
enough water to dilute the sauce
2Tbsp oil
salt & pepper to taste (optional)

Method:

1. Heat oil in wok and brown the beef slices, once it turned brown, push them aside and add the chopped garlic and stir for a minute
2. Add a bit of water followed by the sauce stir the meat in and add bit more water if you want more gravy
3. Let it simmer for a few minutes and then add the sugar beans and let it simmer for another few minutes till it is soft enough for you and the meat is tender
4. Serve it hot with steamed rice

Enjoy !

Blackforest cake

A request for CNY from my sister. It's an 8 inch cake, simply decorated. You can get the recipe HERE :-)

Panini/Sandwich

We have sandwich dinner at least once a week. Usually it will be on nights where my eldest daughter has her tuition at home. My kids are bread eater and they always looking forward for sandwich dinners. Their favourite is Tuna although we will have cold meat slices which is not very often though. While the girls are happy with their soft bread, the hubster likes it grilled like this.

A simple and cheap panini presser is not easy to find here in Singapore. However, a friend recommended me this particular brand which is affordable and large enough to fit at least 2 sandwiches. This is the presser/grill that I got last year and I simply love it. Although I bought a philips cucina with changable plates earlier for my paninis, that is now used strictly for my waffles *LOL*

Oh I forgot to mention, the brand is Princess.

Pineapple Tarts revisited

I could not resist not making these during the CNY break.

Alot of readers were asking me about replacing the milk powder, so I tested it and replaced all the milk powder with plain flour. The result is still the same BUT without the milky flavour. It is still delicious and still melt-in-your-mouth if you follow the instructions in the post here. You can also reduce the milk powder if you don't want it to be too creamy but don't forget to replace it with flour!

Firm Tofu with Sweet Soya Chincalok

My other half and myself need something a little spice to go with our rice. Since I made fish soup for the girls, I made this extremely simple side dish for the adults at home :-) We don't eat chincalok very often but this has been our favourite recently as it goes very well with steamed rice. It's usually as a dip with cucumber, winged bean (or known as kacang botol) and other local salad. For this, I added a few dashes of kicap manis and top it on the fried firm tofu. This only took me about 15 mins depending on how many tofu you need to fry *LOL* It is best that you eat it hot.

Ingredients
Firm tofu, cut into quarters and fry them
2-3T Chinchalok chilli sauce (I used Taho brand which you can purchase from NTUC)
A few dashes of kicap manis (Habhal's brand)

Method
1. Arrange the fried tofu on a plate
2. Scoop 2-3T of chinchalok chilli sauce on the tofu
3. Top with with a few dashes of kicap manis
4. Serve it hot

Banana Sponge Cake

I got a bunch of bananas in the fridge that has ripen to a point where the skin has turned black *LOL* Desperately looking for something to make use of it and finally settled for this sponge cake. The banana sponge is adapted from Richard Goh's recipe and I love it alot because it is really spongey without having to use any emulsifier. To my surprise, it also yields a pretty big cake with only 3 eggs.

You can see how spongey the cake is. This is from the big cake which is 8x3inch round cake pan.

This is the cakelet version of it. The batter could not fit into the 8x3inch round pan.



Banana Sponge Cake (9" cake)
Ingredients
3 eggs (55g-60g each preferably room temperature)
120g sugar (original 150g)
290g banana, mashed (original 200g, I used about 4 delmonte size bananas)
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
100g oil

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170 degree C
2. Grease and line a 9" round tin (do not grease the sides. Just the bottom will do)
3. Whisk eggs, sugar & banana at max speed till stiff or double in volume (if your eggs are a bit cold, it will take a longer time to get it stiff. But just keep mixing it)
4. Add in sifted flour and gently fold it well by hand or spatula
5. Take about 1/3 of the batter and add into the oil and mix till the oil blends into the batter
6. Pour oil mixture into the 2/3 of the batter and gently mix well till well incorporated
7. Bake for 40 - 45mins or till skewers comes out clean

Rice Bread (Not gluten free)

I had some leftover rice in the fridge but it was not enough to make fried rice. While going through one of my bread machine book, I came across a recipe which was just perfect. Rice bread using some left over rice. I won't say this is one of the best bread but the family finished it up in one sitting right out of the oven !

Fortunately I didn't see grains of rice in the bread. But I will sure make this again if I have very little rice left for any other dishes.

Roast Chicken

We had a long X'mas weekend and was in the mood to roast something. Instead of roasting turkey I opted for chicken instead. I took the opportunity to use the vertical roaster which I purchased more than a year ago and have never used it till now *LOL*. I roasted this at a very low temperature about 130C - 140C for about 2hrs and at the last 30-40mins, I threw in the carrots and potatoes which I coated with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and dill.

Since my oven does not have rotisserie function, this little simple gadget comes really handy. I really love how the chicken came out, not that oily as all the fats dripped to the tray. But this one I got is a little small, so I will be getting a slightly bigger one which can hold up to 8 pounds of poultry.

I will probably do another round of roast chicken but with asian flavour.

Happy New Year all !!

Eclairs

I got a small tub of whipped cream, left over from my second's daughter birthday cake which I made recently. Don't feel like wasting it and so decided to use it to make eclair fillings.

For the choux, I used the same recipe as my durian puffs http://quickneasytreats.blogspot.com/2009/07/durian-puffs-2nd-take.htmlbut I increased the eggs to 3. It is recommended that you bake the choux one tray at a time because we do not want to open the oven door during baking as it will cause the choux to flat out.

The filling is really easy because I used instant custard powder. You can make you own favourite custard if you like. Here is the recipe for the filling. For the chocolate topping, I used Alton Brown's recipe because it is very easy. However, you can use any of your favourite ganache recipe for the topping.

Ingredients
Custard filling
100g instant custard powder
150g whipped cream (whipped till stiff)
250g cold water

Chocolate topping
1/2C chocolate chips
1/2t oil

Method
Custard
1. Mix cold water and instant custard and stir till combined
2. Add whipped cream and gently fold till well combined
3. Transfer cream into a piping bag with a regular round tip/nozzle
4. Poke the side of the choux and squeeze the filling till it fills up the hole
5. Do the same for all choux and chill them

Chocolate topping
6. Add the chips and oil and double boil till chocolate melt
7. Take the chilled choux and dip the top into the melted chocolate and serve

Best to eat it chilled.

Fried Udon

My kids are not exactly a rice eating bunch. Our meals are usually made up of rice, noodles, bread, pizza, pasta etc etc .. So one of the days when we got sick of eating the same type of noodles, I made fried udon with seafood. This takes less than an hour to make provided you have all the ingredients ready. I usually prefer buying fresh udon as they taste much better.

This is a variation of the seafood and beef noodle which you can get it here http://quickneasytreats.blogspot.com/2009/10/seafood-and-beef-noodles.html. I stick to all seafood and added cherry tomatoes. I just love the chewy noodles .. they are my favourite :-)

Easy steamed cod fish fillet

I love oily fish and cod is one of them. They are not the cheapest fish around but it is sometimes a treat to have them for our meals. I usually buy the frozen ones and normally will either steam or make fish porridge with it. This time round I got a pack of quite huge fillets and it is just a waste to chop them up *LOL* so inspired by a dish I had during lunch at work, I made something simple which tasted just right for me.

Ingredients
2 palm size cod fillet
1 fresh chilli, removed seeds and julienned
2 thin slices of ginger
2 stalks chinese celery
pepper to marinate the fillet
1T fried garlic+garlic oil

Sauce (add more or less to suit your taste)
2T fish sauce
1T light soya sauce
5T water
1T concentrated mushroom stock (I used Woh Hup brand)

Method
1. Mix the sauce ingredients and put aside
2. Marinate the fillet with pepper and let it sit for 30mins or so
3. Prepare a casserole dish and place the fillets into ti
4. Put the ginger slice and chilli on the fish and pour the sauce over, make sure you cover the fillet well with the sauce
5. Cover the dish with either cling wrap or the dish cover
6. Steam in the microwave oven for 3-5 min or until you can flake the fish (I used my steam function with sensor)
7. Once it's cooked, sprinkle fried garlic with oil on the fish and chinese celery and let it sit for 2-3 minutes before serving

Enjoy !

New baking blog ...

Hi everyone, I have decided to create another blog which is strictly on my bakings or rather bakes that do not go under the 'quick and easy' criteria. However, I will still post baking recipes which are easy in this blog. Do have a look at http://mybakingadventure.blogspot.com/

Thanks again for your support :-)

Braised Bee Hoon my version

This is a rather popular breakfast dish that one can get easily here in Singapore. It's relatively cheap and usually eaten with sunny side up egg, sausages, otak-otak, fillet etc. I usually have a problem buying this and can only get it either from Old Chang Kee or vegetarian stalls. My eldest daughter loves this and I have been trying a few times to get it right. I am now pretty happy because I almost getting it there !

On days when I am able to buy a pack for my brunch, I will always take note of the texture and taste. My problem has always been how to get that shiny sheen on the noodles *LOL* I remember watching one show on AFC and this chinese chef was preparing noodles for one of the dish. What he did was he heat some oil and pour the noodles it and coat the noodles with oil as much as possible. The reason why the noodles have to be coated is not to get them stick to the wok when soya sauce is added. So I used the same technique, coated the bee hoon with oil before I pour the seasoning sauces and I am very happy to say that the method worked very well. My next try will be with kway teow and yellow noodles.

Note: Do adjust the seasoning according to your taste :-)

Ingredients

300g rice vermicelli, soaked and drained well

a handful of cabbage, thinly sliced (you can use beansprouts or other vegetable that you like)

2 Tbsp dark soya sauce

2 Tbsp light soya sauce

2 Tbsp fish sauce

4 Tbsp oyster sauce

2 Tbsp of water

8 Tbsp oil

Method

1. Heat oil in a wok

2. Add vermicelli and stir till they are coated with oil

3. Mix all the seasoning in a bowl and pour into the wok

4. Keep stirring the noodles till they are well coated with the seasoning

5. Add the cabbages or whatever vegetables that you like and continue stirring

6. Turn of the heat once noodles are well coated and vegetables are cooked

7. Serve hot with your choice of side dishes

Happy trying !

Chewy Chocolate Chip cookie (Alton Brown)

This is my family ultimate favourite chocolate chip cookie. The dad and girls love chewy cookie but for me I am more for crunchy ones. This doesn't last very long, usually 1 day or 1.5 days tops. The recipe yields quite a big dough so I usually keep them in small portion and freeze them. Bake them as and when I need. It's dangerous to bake them a big portion because the cookie jar will be forever glued to them *LOL*

The dough will be a bit sticky. So it is advisable to refrigerate the dough before baking. This makes handling easier and you also don't want to end up with real flat cookies. Don't overbake the cookies as this will make them hard when cooled. Once you see the edges turned brown, you can take it out even though the centre seemed soft. Remember, this is chewy cookie not crunchy ;-)

Adapted from here

Ingredients
220g unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour*
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence/exract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (use the regular chips and not mini ones to give some height to the cookie)

* Do not replace bread flour with plain flour because the extra protein in bread flour gives the cookie a chewy character.

Method
1. Heat oven to 180C
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat
3. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside
4. Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl
5. Add the sugar and brown sugar
6. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed
7. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined
8. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined and stir in the chocolate chips
9. Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets
10.Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes, rotate the baking sheet for even browning
11.Cool completely and store in an airtight container

Review: Dessa Sambal Goreng paste

This time round I am going to review the sambal goreng paste which I got from a local supermarket. I am not exactly a great fan of off the shelf paste but there are exceptions when I am either to lazy to buy the ingredients for the paste or running out of time. I was intending to make sambal goreng but changed my mind last minute due to some last minute chore that I have to attend to. So with the ingredients I have, I decided to go ahead making it but using a ready made paste. This is fairly straight forward, you need to fry all the ingredients like beancurd, tempe, beef lungs, prawns, meat etc first, then with very little oil, fry the paste till the oil separates a little. I added a bit of tamarind pulp and abit more water. You can add abit of coconut milk but not too much as it will alter the taste. Then add all the ingredients and let it simmer.

The outcome, taste wise, it is not bad.

I don't see any msg in the ingredients list but that doesn't mean it doesn't contain any. So far I didn't feel thirsty eating my sambal goreng and I can safely say that it is pretty alright. I don't mind buying this again if I am pressed for time.

Seafood and Beef Noodles

I made this for my guests who came for eid celebration recently. On a day like this, I will try to prepare something that is simple so that I will have time to sit and chit chat with them. This is best serve when it just out of the wok :-)




The choice of noodles is entirely up to you. I chose hokkien yellow noodles and bee hoon as my kids prefer this compared to kway teow.



Ingredients:
1 packet hokkien yellow noodles
1 small packet of bee hoon, soaked
1 pack chye sim, cut into small pieces
chinese cabbage, cut into small pieces
fish cake, sliced
200g prawns, tail-on and precooked
200g beef slices, marinated with pepper and corn flour
5 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
3T oyster sauce
2C or more water/stock
salt & pepper to taste
corn flour paste (add 2 tsp flour with a bit of water) as thickener

Method:
1. Preheat wok with 2T of oil
2. Blend garlic and ginger into paste
3. Stir fry ginger and garlic paste till fragrant
4. Add salt while sauteing the garlic/ginger paste
5. Add sliced beef and stir fry till it turns grey
6. Add 2 cups of water/stock and let it simmer till beef is tender
7. Add the oyster sauce, salt & pepper to taste
8. Add sliced fish cake, chye sim, cabbage and simmer till they are tender
9. Pour in the corn flour paste and stir till well blended
10.Lastly add the noodles and stir till all the ingredients are blended nicely
11.Serve hot with fried shallots and chilli pickle