Bread Pizza Base (Extremely easy)

This is for those who are lazy to make pizza base from scratch (including myself). This one uses a few days old bread. There are so many things that you can make using left over bread, I usually use it to make fritters, french toast, bread pudding, croutons, toasts with toppings, garlic bread and many many more. The only thing I have not tried is to use it to make a pizza base, I mean shape it into a round pizza base. This is also partly inspired by an online friend's quest (jq) for an easy, shortcut pizza base 8-)

A slice of the pizza

Ingredients
6 or more slices of bread, sides removed (amount based on the size of the pizza pan)
water or milk (UHT or fresh)
pizza sauce
your favourite toppings
olive oil
* can throw in some dried herbs to make the base more flavourful

Method
1. Preheat oven to 190c
2. Tear bread into small pieces
3. Pour water/milk bit by bit just enough to soak the bread pieces
4. Using your hands, mash the bread pieces until you can form a ball. This is to ensure that the bread is moist enough, the mashed bread should not be too wet
5. Press the mashed bread into the pizza pan, make sure that you press hard so that the base will not break when you slice it later
6. Brush the base with olive oil and put your favourite pizza sauce and toppings
7. Bake for about 20-25 minutes till the sides are crispy and the toppings are golden brown. If you find the base a little wet, use the low grill and grill it for about 5-10mins

Egg-less Fruit Cake

I have never tried an eggless fruit cake before and last weekend I stumbled upon this recipe from an old magazine. I love fruit cake but I hate the idea of having to either steam it for hours or bake it for 2 hrs 8-<>

This cake uses quite alot of condensed milk so the top and sides tend to brown fast. Ensure that you check the doneness using a satay stick or skewer. This is a very moist cake, if you don't like it too moist, you may want to add a little bit more of the flour.

For the mixed fruit, you may want to add a little bit more as I don't find it enough for a rather big cake.

Ingredients
150g butter
200g mixed fruit
2 tbsps sugar
500ml condensed milk (original was 515ml)
250ml water (original was 1/2 can of 515ml)
230g self raising flour, sifted
(original uses 230g flour, 1 tsp baking powder,1 tsp sodium bicarbonate,sifted together)

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients except flour and cook for 10-15minutes or until the mixed fruits are plumped over low heat, stirring occasionally
2. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature then stir in sifted flour
3. Preheat oven to 160c
4. Pour mixture into a lined, greased 20cm baking tin and allow to stand for 15 minutes
5. Bake for 45 min to 1 hour or till skewer comes out clean

Easy Sweet & Sour Sauce

There are many ways to make sweet and sour sauce and most of the time, I use ketchup and chilli sauce as the sauce base. Occasionally I will use tomato paste or sauce if I ran out of my favourite ketchup. I had some left over tomato juice that I used for my chicky pops and decided to whip up an extremely simple sweet & sour sauce for my left over fish. Surprisingly, it tastes better than my other recipe. Looks like I will be sticking to this for my sweet and sour sauce.

Ingredients
1/2 can tomato juice
3-5 tbsp chilli sauce, more if you like it spicy
1 large onion, sliced thick
2 cloves garlic, chopped
half green pepper, cubed
2-3 slices pineapple rings, cut into small pieces
1-2 splashes of sesame oil
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Method
1. Mix tomato juice and chilli sauce and set aside
2. Heat oil in a pot or wok
3. Stir fry onions till translucent, then add chopped garlic
4. Continue frying till fragrant, add green peppers
5. Stir for 3 mins, add tomato & chilli mixture and pineapple pieces
6. Add sesame oil and salt to taste
7. Let the sauce simmer for another 5 min and pour over fried fish, prawns or chicken
8. Add a bit of the pineapple juice or water if it gets a bit dry
9. Serve hot with chinese parsley for garnishing

Tomato & Oregano Chicky Pops

This is a simple and very kids friendly dish which is adapted from The Occasional Cook. Pretty hassle free and you can add whatever herbs that you like. For this dish, you need to use the wing ends or the chicken drummettes. You can either make it into pops like what I did or just cook it as per normal.

The ingredients are just an estimate. You can add more or less of the ingredients to suit your taste. To make it slightly spicy, you can add chilli powder or paste.

Ingredients
10-15 pcs drummettes
1/2 - 3/4 can tomato juice
2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup honey
salt to taste

Method
1. Mix all the above and marinade the chicken for at least 1 hour or overnite
2. Preheat oven to about 200 degree celsius
3. Arrange drummettes on a lined baking tray
4. Bake it for about 20mins, turn over and bake for another 20mins
5. Serve hot

Sweet Bread (Pai Pau)

This bread is my all time favourite since young. You know the kind of bread you get from the shops or confectionary shops with sugar sprinkled on it and tastes great dipping it into hot coffee or tea .. yummy

I have to thank Giselle from KC for sharing this recipe. My first attempt was a total failure because I did not have enough time to proof the dough - result was a pretty dense bread :-( My second attempt was fantastic and we finished it that night itself *LOL* talking about greedy ..

If you want to get a soft and fluffy bread minus the preservatives, please don't rush it.

I modified the original recipe slightly by increasing the amount of butter used. I used my breadmachine to knead the dough.

Ingredients
2.5 tsp instant yeast
3-5 tbsp lukewarm water
375g bread flour
105g sugar
1 egg, room temp
1 egg yolk, room temp
3 tbps butter, melted
1/2 cup milk, room temp.

egg wash: 1 egg, lightly beaten
syrup (optional : to brush on the bread right after baked, but I haven't tried this)


Method
By Breadmachine
1. Put all the ingredients into the breadmachine pan according to the machine's instruction
2. Select dough cycle
3. Once cycle is completed, take dough out and punch it out to release some air and knead it for a few minutes
4. Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with cling wrap and leave it to proof for another 45 mins or till double in size
5. Divide dough into sizes that you like and let it rest for 20mins
6. Shape the dough and put it in a greased tray
7. Cover dough and let it proof till double in size
8. Preheat the oven to 180C, brush the egg wash on top, bake for 20 - 25 mins. Brush syrup when it just comes right out from the oven.

By mixer/hand
1. Dissolve dry yeast in lukewarm water, wait 5 - 10 mins.
2. Mix the yeast liquid with the rest of the ingredients except egg wash and syrup
3. Knead until smooth and elastic - dough supposes to be wet but not sticky.
4. Let the dough sit in a geased large bowl and cover with plastic wrap proving it for about 45 mins
5. Punch the dough to release some air, knead a few times, put back in the bowl, covered and leave it to proof again for 45 mins or double the volume
6. Divide dough into sizes that you like and let it rest for 20mins
7. Shape the dough and put it in a greased tray
8. Cover dough and let it proof till double in size
9. Preheat the oven to 180C, brush the egg wash on top, bake for 20 - 25 mins.
10. Brush syrup when it just comes right out from the oven.

Note: You can also brush dough with melted butter and sprinkle sugar before baking

Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffin

This is Ainsley Harriott from Ainsley's Gourmet Express's recipe. I could not get my mind of this great tasting and smelling muffin after watching his program .. heh. I was very determined to get fresh raspberry and I was surprised that I could it get it easily at Cold Storage, United Square ... hehehe So with all the ingredients in hand, the result 8-D

Ingredients
300g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225ml milk
50g butter, melted
100g fresh raspberries
90g chopped white chocolate

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the sugar
3. Crack the egg into a separate bowl and whisk in the vanilla extract, milk and melted butter
4. Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients with the raspberries and chocolate, taking care not to over-mix.
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases or trays and bake for 30 minutes or so until well risen and just firm.

Chocolate Cheese Cake

This is a simple cake really. If you like chocolate and cream cheese combination, then give this a try. Thanks to Kirsten for sharing this recipe at Jodeli's 8-)

Ingredients

Mixture ‘A’
250g cream cheese, softened
60g castor sugar
1 egg

1. Beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy
2. Beat in egg until well incorporated and set it aside

Mixture ‘B’
180g butter, softened
150g sugar
3 eggs
3 tbsp cocoa
120g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa together and put aside
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add egg, one at a time and beat until well incorporated into mixture
4. Fold flour mixture into egg mixture.
5. To assemble, pour half of mixture ‘B’, then all of mixture ‘A’, then followed by the remaining mixture ‘B’.
6. Bake in preheat oven at 180C for 45-50 min or until skewer comes out clean.

Baking projects

I like to apologize that I am not able to update any recipes right now since I am out of town till end of the week. So for viewing pleasure again, these are my baking projects that I did last week.

Once I am back, I will update the respective recipes.

For Chocolate Lovers ;-)

For the last couple of weeks, I have been baking different types of chocolate cake in preparation for my sil's wedding. I promised her to bake her a chocolate cake as a gift for her wedding and have been pretty hardworking in getting the best one for her *wink*.

One of the cake that was tested Chocolate Cheese Cake.

A nice combination, chocolate and cream cheese :)

After trying a couple of recipes, finally baked this for my dear sil.

Well, the cake still look pretty amateurish, but nevertheless, it tasted heavenly .. heh

Non-Veg Shakshuka

I made this dish about 1.5 mths back. An easy dish indeed that uses mince meat. But if you are lazy to buy mince meat, can use corned beef also *wink*. If I am not wrong, shakshukah is actually a middle eastern vegetarian dish. You can also make the vegetarian version by omitting the meat and replace with more vege and potatoes.

Ingredients
300gm mince meat
100-200gm mixed vegetable
2-3 large tomatoes, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
1 small can tomato puree
3-5 tbsp chilli paste, more if you like it spicy
1 tbsp meat curry
6 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp ginger paste
2 tbsp garlic paste
5 tbsp oil
salt to taste
4-5 large eggs
1 fresh red chilli, thinly sliced
1 fresh green chilli, thinly sliced
scallions and chinese parsley, finely chopped

Method
1. Mix mince meat, garlic, ginger paste and curry powder and leave it to marinade for 20mins
2. Heat oil in the wok
3. Add chilli paste and fry it till oil separates
4. Add chopped onions and fry till it turns translucent
5. Add tomato puree, tomato ketchup, mince meat mixture and salt
6. Mix them well and let it simmer till the meat is cooked
7. Add chopped tomatoes, mixed vegetables, fresh chillies, scallions and parsley
8. Let it simmer and add a bit of water if the mixture gets too dry
9. Prepare a casserole dish, transfer cooked meat into the dish and pour eggs onto the meat mixture
10. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10minutes or until the eggs are cooked.
11. Serve hot and eat it with bread or rice

Corned Beef Kheema

My plan was to have sandwiches for dinner earlier but my tummy was calling out for something spicy. While flipping through a magazine, suddenly I remembered that I have a can of corned beef and frozen instant prata in the freezer. With mixed vege and potato, I made this in under an hour 8-D

I am particular about the corned beef brand and buy only any one of these 3 brands: Libby's, Hormel or Carters. They are a little pricey but good.

This recipe has ketchup/paste that you can omit if you prefer something very spicy. You can also add sliced chilli for extra kick.

Nb: This following recipe is a very basic recipe. You can add more ingredients like fresh coriander leaves, chopped fresh tomatoes, cloves, cardamon and cinnamon to make it more fragrant and savoury.

Ingredients
1 can corned beef, mashed
thumb size ginger
3-4 cloves garlic
5-7 shallots
1 heap tbsp meat curry powder, mixed with a little water to become a paste
1 medium potato, cubed
some mixed vege
3-5 tsp lemon juice
1-2 tbsp tomato ketchup/paste (optional)
2 tbsp oil

Method
1. Blend shallots, garlic and ginger into paste and pour into the mashed corned beef and mixed them well, put aside
2. Heat oil in the pan and once hot, pour meat mixture and stir fry till fragrant
3. Add potatoes and let it simmer for about 10 mins then add mixed vege
4. Add curry paste and continue mixing followed by tomato ketchup
5. Stir the mixture then add lemon juice and let it simmer till the potatoes are cooked
6. For more gravy, add a little bit of water and continue simmer till it has the consistency that you like
7. Serve hot with chapati, prata or flat bread

Chicken Chop

This is one of my daughters favourite dish and made it for dinner a few weeks ago. This is a simple dish and I highly recommend purchasing a millet to flatten the meat a little bit. I don't have a millet and my chicken was a thick piece of meat. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it.

For this dish, I used a deboned thigh meat but you can use breast meat if you like.

Ingredients
2 deboned chicken thigh meat,
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
2-3 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
extra virgin olive oil /olive oil

Brown Sauce
half medium onion, chopped/thinly sliced
2-3 tbsp water
1 tsp flour
sliced mushroom (optional)

Method
1. Marinate chicken meat with pepper, salt and worchestershire sauce for about 1hr or overnite 2. Heat up EVO in a pan and grill the chicken pieces till cooked. Start with the skin side down first
3. Remove chicken pieces and put it aside
4. Add chopped/sliced onion and cook till they turn transparent
5. Add water one tablespoon at a time and stir the mixture
6. Add mushrooms if you are using it and simmer
7. Add abt 1tsp of water into the flour and mix it well
8. Pour flour mixture into the pan to thicken the sauce
9. Add salt and pepper to taste if you like
10.Arrange chicken piece on a plate and pour some of the sauce/gravy over the chicken
11.Serve with potatoes and salad

Note: You can add other herbs or spices to suit your taste.

Phad Thai (Thai Fried Noodles)

I have been looking for a good phad thai recipe and finally found something that is different. This recipe uses fish sauce, tamarind juice and palm sugar - a combination that I am curious to try. The result was truly delicious. You can adjust the flavour by meddling with the above 3 ingredients. If you like salty, add more fish sauce, sourness, add more tamarind juice. For sweet dish, add more sugar.

Ingredients
500g rice noodles (I used ipoh hor fun. You can also use glass noodles)
200g fresh prawns, shelled and deveined
3 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked
1 medium size onion, sliced thinly
5-7 clove garlic, chopped
5 tbsp fish sauce
5 tbsp tamarind juice
4 tbsp palm sugar
100-200g bean sprouts
2-3 tsp ground dried chilli (I omitted this because of my kids)
2 large fresh chillies, seeded and sliced thinly
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
prawn stock
peanut oil

Garnish
chopped toasted peanuts
lime wedges
cilantro & scallions

Method
1. Mix fish sauce, tamarind juice and palm sugar till sugar dissolves, set a side
2. Heat oil and stir fry fresh prawns till they turned pink, remove and set aside
3. Fry onions till translucent and add chopped garlic till fragrant
4. Add dried shrimps and stir through for about 1 min
5. Add noodles and toss it with the ingredients in the wok
6. Add a few tbsp of prawn stock to soften the noodles
7. Push noodles aside and pour beaten eggs
8. Once eggs set, scramble and toss it with the noodles
9. Add cooked prawns and pour fish sauce mixture and stir well and ensure that the noodles are well-coated
10. Add bean sprouts, fresh chillies and stir till well blend heat it through for a few minutes. If noodles too dry, add more stock.
11. Serve hot with sprinkle of chopped peanuts, cilantro and scallions and a few squeezes of lime

Spicy Fried Pasta

This dish uses store bought pasta sauce and dried chilli paste. I had half a bottle of Leggo's pasta sauce left in the fridge and I did not want to have another regular pasta dish. This one is a fairly simple dish to make and spicy - something that I have been craving for :-D . For this, you can use any pasta sauce that you like but I like something with chunks of tomatoes, onions and veges and my choice is Leggo's Primavera.

Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 clove garlic, chopped
250-300g pasta
250-300g pasta sauce (you can put more if you want to have more tomato-ish flavour)
2-3 tbsp chilli paste (more if you want fiery spicy)
2 tsp ikan bilis granules or anchovies
100-200g prawns, shelled and deveined
fish cake, thinly sliced
freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil

Method
1. Boil pasta till al-dente, drained and set aside
2. Heat oil and fry chilli paste till oil separates, then add chopped onions and garlic
3. Once fragrant, pour pasta sauce, stir till well combined
4. Add ikan bilis granules or anchovies and pepper
5. Add prawns and fish cake slices, stir till all ingredients are coated with the sauce
6. Once the sauce starts to bubble, add the pasta and stir till well combined for about 10mins or till the pasta absorbs the sauce
7. Serve hot with chopped scallions/parsley and fried shallots as garnish

Coffee Cookie

This is a must for coffee lover *wink* This recipe was a contribution from an online friend Aishah at M4M. My daughters love this cookie.

The recommended instant coffee powder is nescafe but I use my favourite, BRU coffee instead.

The dough is very soft, so you need to use either piping bag or cookie presser to shape it. Rest it in the fridge for 30mins for easier handling.

Ingredients
1 egg
9oz/250g butter, softened
6oz/170g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
11oz/330g plain flour
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
some chocolate rice for decoration

Method
1. Beat sugar and butter till white and fluffy
2. Add vanilla essence, egg and coffee powder and mix well
3. Once well blended add in the flour
4. Use a cookie presser or piping bag to shape the cookie
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C till the cookies turn golden brown

Choc Chip & Walnut Cookie

The recipe I used for this cookie was taken from allrecipes.com but I made some modification to it. It is supposed to be like Famous Amos cookie but personally, other than the texture, the taste is not there yet. I still need to do more experiment for get the taste that I want. Nevertheless, this is a great tasting cookie - the texture is light and crispy but not overly crispy. Something that I like :)

The original recipe uses 1 cup butter. I have modified it to add a bit of shortening to retain the shape. My first attempt using the original recipe gave me a flat cookie.

Here are some of the other tips that you can follow to minimise flat cookie which worked for me :)

- Use good butter. Ingredients should just be cream and salt. Example of good brand Lurpak, Golden Churn etc
- Do not overbeat the butter. Beat until the mixture turns fluffy and well mixed, then stop
- Chill the dough before use
- Make sure the tray used is not hot

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar (can use demerera or light muscovado sugar)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (you can use less but make sure the butter and shortening makes up 1 cup)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 - 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used about 1 1/2 cup)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree celsius
2. Thoroughly cream sugars, butter, shortening, oil, egg, milk and vanilla.
3. Add dry ingredients, nuts and chocolate chips.
4 .Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 8-12 minutes. (Cookies are light in color when done.)

Enjoy !

Sugi Cookie

I apologize for not updating the recipe fast enough. Work and house chores were catching up on me and I finally got some time to update :)

The sugi cookie recipe is Chef Devagi's recipe which you can get it from QBB website. But anyway, here is the recipe for those who are interested.

Ingredients
250g ghee
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
500g plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda (using this will give the cracking effect)
170g icing sugar
3/4 teaspoon fine salt

Method
1. Melt ghee over low heat or use the microwave oven for about 10-15secs and leave it to cool
2. Add vanilla essence to cooled ghee
3. Sift flour, bicarbonate soda, icing sugar and salt into mixing bowl
4. Pour ghee mixture in flour mixture and knead well to form a firm dough.
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
6. Roll dough into melt-in-your-mouth ball sizes and place on greased tray and bake for 25 - 30 minutes till cooked but not brown. The cookies should be white and crumbly in texture.

Hari Raya cookies

I started baking late and only managed to come out with these for the last 2-3 days.

I will only update the recipe later but if anyone would like to have the recipe, do leave me a message.

Chicken with Mango Salsa

I marinated some chicken fillets for my vietnamese springrolls but they never made it there. The fillets ended up in my wrap which I had it with mango salsa *yums* The mango salsa was inspired by a show featuring caribbean cuisine.

This is a truly no fuss dish, the wraps were store bought and the mangoes were juicy and sweet.

The filling before wrapping

the wrap

4-5 wraps

Chicken
Ingredients
6 chicken fillets
1-2 tsp five spice
salt & pepper
2-3 tbsp hoisin sauce
extra virgin olive oil for grilling


Method
1. Marinate cleaned fillets with five spice, salt & pepper and hoisin sauce for about 30mins or more
2. Heat oil in a pan
3. Grill fillets till the sides are brown. Make sure that the meat is not too dry
4. Slice them and put them aside


Mango Salsa
Ingredients
1 ripe mango, chopped
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1-2 fresh chillies, de-seeded and chopped (you can use red or green peppers too)
lime juice from half lime
some coriander, chopped
salt & pepper

Method
1. Mix mango, shallots coriander and chilli
2. Add lime juice and sprinkle salt & freshly ground pepper
3. Toss till they are well blended


Assemble
1. Put slices of chicken on the wrap
2. Top chicken with salsa, arrange neatly
3. Roll up and ready to eat (you can heat the wrap in the oven. Brush wrap with oil before grilling it)
4. Top with sauces for extra flavour

Easy Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori chicken is one of my favourite dish because I just love the spicy and sourish combination of the dish. For this dish, I cheated using a premix by Maggi. I took a chance when I saw it at Giant hypermart in JB and bought 2 packs of it. I was lucky because Mellie from NK tried it and recommended it ... yayness !! (thanks Mellie *muack*)

The premix

Apparently, this premix cannot be found at the major supermarkets here in Singapore. I am not sure about the other smaller provision shops or supermarkets. If you happened to see it here, do let me know :-) But if you happen to go to JB, do purchase a few packs of it *wink* It's worth trying.

I used half chicken for this dish. I just followed the instructions at the back of the pack but increase the amount of yoghurt and leave it to marinate overnight. Serve it with sliced white onion and lime wedges.

Beef Noodle

I love to eat beef hor fun. It is not really difficult to make and not only it is versatile, but a great one dish meal too - you can add seafood, chicken and lots and lots of vege. For this version, I used rice spaghetti which is like laksa noodle but slightly slimmer. My initial plan was to use hor fun, but was too tired to get fresh ones from the market ... heh

I would like thank Gina from KC for introducing to me the use of potato starch as thickening agent instead of cornflour :-) I find the result is better than using the latter.

Ingredients
200gm-300gm beef slices (get the one for stir fry)
1 packet rice spaghetti, boiled till cooked and drained well (you can replace this with fresh hor fun/yellow noodles/bee hoon)
chye sim/cabbage/carrot, cut according to your liking
800ml-1ltr water
2 chicken stock cube
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg, lightly beaten
2-3 tbsp potato starch mix with water to make it into a paste
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Beef seasoning
1-1.5 tbsp worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp dark soya sauce, you can put less or more if you like
1 tsp sesame oil
pepper

Noodle seasoning
2-3 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp oil

Method
1. Marinate beef with beef seasoning for about 30mins or longer
2. Heat oil in the wok, add cooked noodles/hor fun/bee hoon/yellow noodles and noodle seasoning and stir fry till they are coated with oil and seasoning, put it aside
3. Add 2 tbsp oil to the same wok, add minced garlic and stir fry till fragrant but not burnt
4. Add beef and stir fry till cooked, once cooked remove beef and place it on top of the prepared noodles
5. Add water and chicken cube (you can use chicken stock also) and let it simmer
6. Once simmer, add vege and stir till the vege are half done
7. Lower heat, put 2-3 tbsp of potato starch mix and stir the gravy, if not thick enough add a little bit more starch mix
8. Pour beaten egg and stir it to thread it, add salt to taste
9. Let the gravy simmer and pour over the prepared noodle with beef
10.Serve hot with pickled green chillies

Vietnamese Pancake

I was first introduced to this dish by my hubby a couple of years ago - in which during that time, I was not into cooking or baking. The first thing that I noticed about this dish was the amount of beansprouts .. most of their dishes have loads of bean sprouts, mostly raw. One thing I find about vietnamese during my visit there is the amount of raw vege that they consume. You can hardly find any overweight ladies or elderly there. Majority of them are petite - which makes me feel like a 'king kong' when I was with them *LOL*

Ok back to the dish, this is a very simple dish. There are many ways that you can eat it, but I like to wrap it in lettuce, mint leaves and dip in the sauce. Yummy !!!

A plate full of them :)

What you see above was made with a premix. I have also made using a recipe shared by one of the forum member at Jodeli's forum, tt and find the homemade ones tastes better.

Ingredients
Batter
1/2 cup cooked rice
2 1/2 cups coconut milk or water or milk (I used half coconut milk, half milk)
175g rice flour
50g potato starch
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp salt
oil

Toppings/fillings
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
200g chicken fillet, sliced (I omitted this)
200-300g small shrimp, remove skin and head
300-400g bean sprouts
1 cup cooked mung beans (I omitted this)

lettuce, mint/basil for garnishing

Method
Batter
1. Put rice and coconut milk in a blender and blend until smooth
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and let it rest for about 1/2 hour before use

Pancake
1. Add a little oil to a non stick pan
2. Add some onions, shrimp and chicken, stir fry until 1/2 cooked
3. Add some batter and “twist” the pan so the batter coats the bottom of the pan evenly
4. When the pancake is half cooked, sprinkle bean sprouts and mung beans in the middle
5. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 3-5 mins, until the pancake is crispy
6. Fold the pancake in half and continue to cook for about 1-2 mins and transfer to the plate
7. Repeat same process for the rest of the batter and filling
8. Serve with herbs and dipping sauce

Easy Peasy Udon Soup

This is my second udon soup dish. Unlike the other one, this version is soo simple good when you have very limited time to prepare dinner. As usual, I cheat using chicken and ikan bilis stock .. heh

Ingredients
Udon noodles
1.5L water
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1 chicken bouillon cube (Maggi, no added msg)
1 ikan bilis bouillon cube (Maggi, no added msg)
some fishballs
some fishcake, sliced
pepper to taste
local lettuce and fried shallots for garnishing

Method
1. Blend onion and garlic into paste
2. Boil water and add onion/garlic paste and the stock cubes
3. Let the soup boil for 15-20mins and make sure that the cubes are dissolved
4. Add fishballs and sliced fishcakes and continue simmer for about 10min
5. Add pepper to taste
6. Blanch noodles and lay lettuce in the bowl
7. Place the noodles on the lettuce and scoop the soup over with fishballs and fishcakes
8. Sprinkle fried shallots and sliced chilli and serve hot

Durian Ice-Cream

Still with some durian in the fridge, I decided to make this lighter version ice-cream which I have been itching to try since the last 1.5 mths. Finally made it and it is great. Creamy despite uses only egg white, sourcream and sugar. I got this recipe from allrecipes but sort of changed the measurement slighty.

Ingredients
3/4 cup egg white
300ml light sourcream (you can use normal sourcream if you like it creamier)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
durian pulp from 6-10 seeds

Method
1. Heat egg white in the microwave for about 30-35sec. Don't cook it just make sure that it is heated through
2. Whip egg white and sugar till soft peak formed
3. Stir in sourcream, vanilla essence and durian pulp till well combined
4. Freeze the mixture and stir every 30 mins or so till frozen

Half of the recipe I used the ice-cream maker and the other half I freeze it in the freezer. I found that the texture is better using the ice-cream maker. The picture taken is from the freezer batch.

If you are going to use an ice-cream maker, it would be better to chill the mixture first before use.

Green Bean & Durian Porridge (Sweet dessert)

Bought 2 boxes of durian recently to make some mooncake and a durian cake. Still have quite a bit of leftovers and decided to make this. It has been a long time since I had this. I also like to eat this dessert with cream crackers, just crush them and sprinkle them on the porridge - gives a little crunch to the dessert.

Ingredients
200g green beans, soaked for 4 hours (I used boiling water and soaked for 2 hrs)
500ml coconut milk (I used Ayam brand which is about 270ml and added water to make it 500ml)
80g gula melaka (dark palm sugar) or dark brown sugar (you can reduce if you don’t like too sweet)
40g white sugar (can reduce if you don’t like too sweet)
1 tsp salt
3 pandan leaves, knotted
100ml fresh milk (original use coconut cream)
4-5 seeds durian
some water if you like it dilute

Method
1. Boil soaked beans till soft, if too much water, pour them away, leave about the level of the boiled beans
2. Add coconut milk, both sugars, salt, pandan leaves and durian into the pot and let it simmer over medium heat till bubbly.
3. Once slightly boiled, add milk/coconut cream and simmer till slightly thickens (I don't like it too thick)
4. Serve hot with crushed cream crackers or bread for dipping

Macaroni Chicken Soup

It has been a while since I had a bowl of macaroni soup. So I decided to make this simple dish last Friday for dinner. Coincidentally, Ramadan is just around the corner and I have been cracking my brains to list down dishes that I can prepare for iftar, so this will be in my list :)

The soup is my mom's simple chicken soup. So easy to make yet tasty. Great for children or for the sick.

Ingredients
half chicken cut into 4 pcs, skin removed
2.5 - 3L water
2 potatoes, cut into chunks
1 carrot, cut into chunks
4 clove garlic
1-1.5 cm ginger
8 shallots, thinly sliced
1 tbsp white peppercorns, freshly ground ( you can add black peppercorns if want it to be a little more spicy)
salt to taste
some chinese celery, chopped
lime, sliced (optional)
macaroni, boiled till al-dente

Method
1. Fried sliced shallots till brown and keep both the oil and fried shallots
2. Blend garlic and ginger into paste
3. Boil water and once it starts to bubble, add garlic/ginger paste and ground pepper
4. Add chicken pieces and let the soup boil for about 20 minutes
5. Add chinese parsley, carrots and potatoes and continue to simmer till they are cooked
6. Once the soup is done, take chicken pieces out and shred the chicken meat
7. Put cooked macaroni into a bowl or plate, pour soup over the macaroni
8. Sprinkle shredded meat, fried shallots with its oil and chinese parsley onto the macaroni
9. Squeeze some lime juice and serve hot

Snowskin Mooncake

I would like to apologize for not updating this blog for awhile. I had a pretty hectic schedule lately and could not find the time to update this blog. I have not been cooking nor baking lately but managed to make my very first snowskin mooncake. The recipe is not difficult and bought almost all of the items from the store.

I always like eating snowskin mooncake and decided to make my own after I found an easy recipe shared by one of the member at M4M. I modified it slightly by reducing the sugar and added condensed milk to give it a creamier taste.

The cross-section of the mooncake.

I halved the original recipe and able to get about 11 mini mooncakes.

Ingredients

75g glutinous fried rice flour (kou fein), can get it any baking supply stores
90g powdered sugar
33g shortening
75g cold drinking water
1/2 tsp condensed milk
Vanilla essence or other flavours that you fancy
Colorings of you choice
Lotus paste, can be bought from baking supply store
Salted egg yolks, steamed on an oil plate for about 5-10min


Method
1. Sieve flour and powdered sugar
2. Add shortening and mix them till you get crumb like texture
3. Add water, condensed milk, essence and colouring, mix well until it forms a smooth dough
4. Set dough aside for at least 20mins
5. Make the fillings into ball shapes each 30g (inclusive of yolk if you using one)
6. Divide dough into small portion each 20g
7. Flatten dough to wrap up the fillings
8. Seal up dough to enclose filling completely
9. Press into mould and knock the mould to loosen the mooncake

Note: Ensure that you roll the dough with fried glutinous rice and sprinkle some of it in the mould to ease releasing the mooncake.

Easy Mocha Cake

I got this recipe from the internet but could not remember where. I was looking for an easy cake recipe to make and this particular one caught my eye. The original recipe was a cappucino cake but I changed it to mocha, replacing part of the coffee with cocoa. The cake turned out well and my daughters love it.

Ingredients
1 sponge cake (you can buy or bake)
250ml condensed milk
250ml water
2 tbsp instant coffee
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp gelatine

Method
1. Let gelatine bloom in water for about 10mins
2. Heat up gelatine+water mixture and once gelatine dissolves, add instant coffee and cocoa powder. Stir well till dissolved and no lumps
3. Turn heat off, add condensed milk and stir till well blended
4. Place sponge cake in a baking tin, pour mixture into baking tin
5. Chill in the fridge till set
6. Take the set cake out of the baking tin and frost it with whipping cream or buttercream if you like with chocolate flakes

Note: Use baking tin and NOT a cake ring

If you want to make a cappunico cake, replace the cocoa powder with instant coffee.

Potato with Tuna in Ginger & Soy

We had porridge for dinner today and I came up with this dish for my girls :D A very easy but pretty tasty dish suitable for kids. Nothing fancy, just potatoes, mixed vege and a can of heinz Tuna in Ginger & Soy.

This is the tuna that I used. You can get it Cold Storage easily if you can't find it at NTUC or other supermarket. Cold Storage is having an offer at $1.85 per can.

Ingredients

3 medium local potatoes, cubed
100gm mixed vege
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
1 can Heinz Tuna in Ginger & Soy
oil for frying

Method

1. Fry the potatoes till golden brown and put aside
2. Fry garlic and onions till soft and slightly brown
3. Add mixed vege and stir till cooked
4. Add potatoes and mix well
5. Dish out the potato/mix vege mix on a plate and top it with tuna flakes
6. Mix tuna and potatoes well and serve immediately

Green Tea Red Bean Flaky Mooncake

I finally got hold of a mooncake making book recommeded by Elaine from KC yesterday. This book has 33 recipes ranges from chilled mooncake to agar-agar version.

Seriously if you ask me, I do not know how good the recipes are since this is the first time I am making it. However the one I just made tasted pretty alright to me. Also based on the ingredients of the other recipes, they look pretty good.

My virgin attempt in making mooncake :D I still have not bought the mooncake mould, so I chose this one since it doesn't require one. Ok, this particular one that I have just made is supposed to have durian lotus seed paste. Since I only have red bean paste in my fridge, I used it but regretted for not adding melon seeds. I think it would have tasted even better.

The inside of the mooncake

Ingredients

A. Water Dough
100gm plain flour (the book put medium protein flour)
25gm castor sugar
40gm shortening
40gm water

B. Oil Dough
1 tsp bakeable green tea powder (I got this from Phoon Huat)
100gm plain flour (the book put medium protein flour)
40gm shortening
15gm butter

Filling
Red bean paste

OR you can use the durian and lotus seed paste

250gm lotus seed paste
25gm durian paste
25gm melon seeds/kuaci
3 salted egg yolk, halved

1. Mix lotus seed paste, durian paste and melon seeds evenly and cut into 6 equal portion of about 50gm each

Method

1. Blend ingredient A till the dough is smooth. Divide into 3 portions and rest for 10 min
2. Blend ingredient B till it becomes a dough and divide into 3 portions
3. Flatten A and wrap B in it and roll into a rectangular shape
4. Roll it up like a swissroll, turn it 90 degree clockwise and flatten it again
5. Roll it up like a swissroll again and cut into 2
6. With the cut side facing down, flatten the it into a round shape and wrap up filling to form a ball
7. Brush the top with egg white and sprinkle black sesame (original recipe uses poppy seeds)
8. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degree celcius for about 20-25mins

Beancurd & Beansprout in Coconut Milk Gravy (Lemak Taugeh & Tahu)

I realised that I have not been cooking lots of Malay dishes. For a change, cooked something local today. A very simple dish suitable for both kids and adult. This is another high protein dish since the main ingredients are beancurd, beansprouts and tempeh which I omitted this time round.

Ingredients

2-3 firm beancurd, cut into quarters
100-250gm beansprouts, roots removed
1 fresh red chilli, thinly sliced (more if you like it spicy)
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion
1 1/2 tbsp silver fish, soaked
250ml low fat coconut milk
salt to taste

Method

1. Blend garlic, onion and silver fish into paste
2. Boil 400ml water in a pot
3. When water starts to boil, add blended paste and stir. Leave to boil
4. Once boils, add coconut milk
5. Once mixture starts to bubble, add beancurd and leave for about 10 mins
6. When gravy starts to bubble, add beansprouts and sliced chilli
7. Add salt to taste and simmer till gravy boils. Do not overboil.
8. Turn heat off and cover the pot for about 10mins before serving
9. Serve hot with steamed rice

Rose Swissroll

It has been quite a while since I last baked and hands were itchy to bake something for the weekend. Inspired by Janny's (from Rainbow Connection) post on the rose patty cakes, I made this rose swissroll instead. With some slight modification to one of the swissroll recipe that I have, it came out pretty well except that I should have baked it in a slight larger pan. Had a bit of struggle trying to roll it because of the thickness. Nevertheless, it was pretty good :)

Ingredients

3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/4 cup corn flour, sifted
2 tbsp hot milk
1 tbsp melted butter
2 tsp rose water
1-2 drops of red colouring

Filling
300ml cream, whipped
2 tbps jam (I omitted this)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celcius
2. Sift both flours together and put it aside
3. Place egg whites in a clean, dry bowl and beat till stiff peaks form
4. Add sugar slowly and continue beating till thick and glossy
5. Add egg yolks one a time, beating well after each addition followed by colouring
6. Lightly fold in flour with milk till well combined
7. Add melted butter and lightly mix it till no streaks followed by rose water
8. Pour batter into a greased and line swiss roll pan and bake for 8-12 mins or springs back when touched or the sides shrink away from the sides of the tin
9. Leave the cake in the tin for about 5 mins and take it out to cool on a wire rack
10. When cool, place the cake on a clean tea towel and cut the sides away
11. Spread with jam followed by cream
12. Roll the cake holding the sides firmly and leave it wrapped in the tea towel for about 10mins
13. Remove swissroll from the towel and slice it to serve. Otherwise, wrap swissroll with cling wrap and store it in the refrigerator

Ca Kho To (Fish simmered in caramel sauce)

This is a vietnamese dish that is being served in almost all vietnamese restaurant. I did not have a chance to try this dish when I visited the place a few weeks ago but had the opportunity to smell this great tasting dish (my colleague ordered this dish while I was enjoying my shrimp *LOL*) I totally forgot about this dish until a member of KC posted the recipe and I went "wow, this is great !!" =D I just had to try it as it brought back memories of that wonderful aroma.

This dish is usually served in a claypot but you can cook with any thick based pot that you have. My end product looks far from what is being served in those vietnamese restaurant but taste wise is yummy. This is generally a child friendly dish because there is no chillI/peppers, but you can add it if you like. My daughters and myself love this dish.

I used the recipe shared by Thu from KC but modified it slightly. This recipe uses caramel sauce that was prepared earlier but you don't need to do that. The only difference is to make the caramel sauce then add the other other ingredients. You can refer to the caramel sauce method for reference.

Ingredients

3 fish fillet, cut in thirds
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, sliced/julliene
1 lemongrass, sliced thinly
3 tbsp water or chicken stock
2 green onions/spring onions, chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp caramel sauce (recipe below)
2 tsp light soya sauce
salt & black pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Heat vegetable oil in a clay pot or medium fry pan over moderate heat
2. Add minced garlic and chopped shallot. Stir until fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes then add lemongrass slices
3. Add catfish pieces and cook until they turn almost white, for about 2 minutes
4. Add caramel sauce, fish sauce and soya sauce and gently stir for 1 more minute, until the fish has slightly caramelized for about 12 to 15 minutes. You can simmer it longer if you want a drier version
5. Remove from the heat and garnish with thinly sliced green onions and ground black pepper
6. Serve hot with steamed rice

Caramel Sauce
1/2 - 1 cup sugar
some boiling water

Preparation for the Caramel Sauce:

1. Warm up a pale coloured pan/pot gently for about 1-2 mins
2. Pour sugar into the warm pan
3. Leave the sugar until it begins to melt (do no stir)
4. Once the sugar starts to melt, you will see the colour slowly changes to brown
5. Twirl the pan to ensure that all the sugar are melted evenly
6. Use a wooden spoon and stir until the sugar is totally melted and resembles dark runny honey 7. Take the pot off the heat and gradually add boiling water and keep stirring (you have to be careful here because there could be some splutter)
8. You may want to return the pot back to a gentle heat to re-melt lumps of caramel that have formed.
9. Once the caramel is smooth, turn off the fire and leave it to cool before keeping in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator.

Pasta Al-Tonno (Tuna)

It has been a while since I last updated this blog. Finally after regaining back my old self, I made this extremely simple dish for dinner. My hubby has been craving for pasta dish which I haven't been doing lately especially before my work trip :D So I decided to make this one especially for him since I had this when I was in Vietnam. Ok, funny isn't that I had a western dish at Vietnam? Ah well, my colleagues and I usually frequent this eating place that serves western and local dishes. Generally, the place is catered for foreigners, so we usually have our lunch and dinner there.

You can use whatever pasta you like. I used penne because that was what I have in my pantry. I would prefer to have it with spaghetti though.

For this version I cheated using pasta sauce I bought from the supermarket, my all time favourite brand Leggo's. You can make your own sauce too because it is a very simple dish, simpler than bolognaise to me at least. You can also use salmon if you like too or better still, add tuna and salmon :)

Ingredients
200-300gm pasta, boil till al-dente
1 jar Leggo's napolitana sauce (or other sauces that you like)
1 can tuna flakes in oil
handful of basil, chopped
oregano, basil herbs if you like

Method
1. Boil pasta till al-dente, drain the water and put it aside
2. Heat pasta sauce till bubbly and add tuna flakes, stir well and add herbs if you want more flavour
3. Add pasta into the heated sauce and toss till well coated
4. Sprinkle chopped basil and serve immediately

If you want to make sauce from scratch, the ingredients are as follows:

1 clove garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can tomato sauce (in a can, more if you like)
oregano and basil
salt to taste

Fry chopped garlic and onion till soft and add tomato sauce. Add a little bit of water and add herbs and salt to taste.

That is generally it. You can also add chopped tomatoes (preferably from the can) to the sauce for more flavour.

Chempedak Fritters

I do not know the english name for chempedak, but it looks a little bit like jackfruit but smaller and sweeter. It has a very strong smell almost as stinking as durian. To me it smells a little like gasoline if it is not opened. But once you open up the fruit, it doesn't smell as bad.

My mom gave me one medium size chempedak yesterday and I ended up making fritters out of it this morning.

The fruit

The final product :-D

Crispy on the outside but soft and sweet inside

Ingredients
chempedak
3/4 cup rice flour
2 tbsp self raising flour
1/2 tsp limewater (you can omit this)
pinch of salt
1 to 1 1/2 cup water
Enough oil for deep frying

Method
1. Mix flours and salt
2. Pour water into the dry ingredients slowly and stir till batter is somewhat like pancake batter
3. Add limewater and stir mixture till well-blended
4. Heat oil in a wok
5. Coat chempedak with batter and deep fry till golden brown
6. Serve hot with tea