Sambal Goreng Pengantin ala Zu

This is one of hubby's favourite dish. One of the least healthy dish, it is generally made of some cow's organs like liver and lungs, prawns, beef/mutton or even tripe. This is my mom's recipe which I am soo used to eating and to me, it is so far the best sambal goreng. I modify her version slightly by adding beancurd and tempe which are my hubby's favourite. It took me awhile to get used to the combination but I am pretty alright with it now.

I hardly make this dish because of the amount of time needed to prepare it. Firstly, the cutting, everything has to be cut into bite size followed by the frying of every ingredients - that is why I said this is one of the most unhealthy dish around.

For this version, I only used beancurd, prawns and lungs (yeah lungs).

dumped all the ingredients after frying

Ingredients
4 firm beancurd, cut into bite size/cubed
200-300g fresh prawns, remove head and shell but leave the tail
200-300g lungs, cooked and cubed
5 large fresh red chillies, thinly sliced
4 large onions, thinly sliced
3tbsp chilli paste (more if you like it spicy)
4cm belachan (shrimp paste)
tamarind juice from tamarind pulp about the size of a small lemon
4 large clove garlic
3cm ginger
4cm galangal
3 lemongrass
100-150ml coconut milk
100-200ml water
salt & sugar to taste
3-5 tbsp oil

Method
1. Fry beancurd, prawns, lungs, sliced onions and chillies till cooked, without over cooking it and put it aside
2. Blend garlic, ginger, galangal and lemongrass into a paste
3. Add belachan with the tamarind juice and put it aside
4. Heat oil in wok and add chilli paste
5. Stir fry the chilli paste till oil separates then add the garlic/ginger/galangal/lemongrass paste
6. Fry till fragrant
7. Add coconut milk followed by tamarind/belachan juice and stir well
8. Add 100ml of water, you can add more water if you prefer to have more gravy
9. Add salt & sugar to taste and simmer till gravy is slightly thickened
10.Add the fried ingredients, and stir till all the ingredients are well coated with the gravy
11.Simmer till slightly dry - there should not be too much gravy
12.Serve hot with steamed rice

Light & Fluffy Banana Cake

I have tried numerous banana cake recipe and this is so far the best. The end result is just like what the name says - light & fluffy. I used the recipe shared by one KC member Joanne but I modified one of the ingredient. The sweetness is dependent on the bananas you use. For this cake, I used the del-monte like bananas.

Close up

Ingredients
6oz butter/margarine
6 oz castor sugar/brown sugar
2 lage eggs
3 1/2 tbsp yoghurt
3 large banana, mashed
8 oz self raising flour, sifted
If you are using plain flour, use 8 oz plain/cake flour with 1tsp baking powder and 1tsp bicarbonate soda

Method
1, Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Cream butter & sugar till light and fluffy
3. Add eggs, one at a time and beat well
4. Add yoghurt and banana mix till well blend
5. Fold in flour to mixture and pour into a greased baking pan
6. Bake at 180C for 45min - 1hr or till skewer comes out clean

Homemade Coleslaw

We had fish and chips for lunch today. Unfortunately, we ran out of salad mix and only then I realised that I still have cabbage and carrots in my fridge. So I ended up making a coleslaw from scratch. It is an easy dish except for the shredding. But it took me less than 15mins to chop up the cabbage and carrots since I made enough for lunch. I should have thought about it yesterday since coleslaw is best eaten chilled and tastes even better overnight.

The chips were also homemade too but I will talk about it another time.

The recipe is just an estimation. It is totally up to you whether you like sweet or slightly sourish. For me I like it slightly sourish. Some recipes use milk and sugar, but for me, I shortcut the ingredient and use condensed milk instead.

Ingredients
cabbage and carrots, shredded
4 heaps tbsp mayonaise
3 tbsp lemon juice (less if you don't like it sourish)
1-2 tsp condensed milk (more if you like it sweet)
salt & pepper to taste

Method
1. Mix shredded cabbage and carrots well
2. Combine mayonaise, lemon juice, condensed milk and salt and pepper. Stir the mixture well
3. Pour coleslaw mixture into the vege mix and using a spoon, mix it thoroughly until all the vege are covered with the sauce
4. Chill in the refrigerator before serving

Cheese Roll

Made these rolls using the cheese slices that I have stocked in the refrigerator. My dad keeps buying them for the girls and we could not keep up with the stock. Some of them ended up in these rolls and I was soo surprise with the beautiful swirl effect it gave.

The dough I used for this is the same as the sweet bun recipe. For this, you will need to roll out the dough into a square or rectangle, arrange the slices side by side till it covers the rolled dough. Slowly roll it up like a swiss roll and cut them up. Arrange them close to each other, let ir rise till double in size and bake them.

Roasted Plum Sauce Chicken & Stir-fry Vege

Feeling a little bored with plain steamed rice, I decided to cook chicken rice yesterday with simple side dishes. Malay style chicken rice is usually served with deep fried chicken which I truly, honestly hate to do. I avoid deep frying chicken like a plague because of the amount of work I had to do cleaning the grease although I used a pot to fry them. Another one is the oil, what to do with the balance oil? I don't cook alot everyday especially frying and I don't like wastage. So, the obvious alternative is to roast it.

Roasting chicken is not difficult, just need to have good marinade. I am not really particular about the measurement when preparing the marinade for the chicken. The basic stuffs I use would be garlic, ginger, mustard or whatever spices I have lying around, ketchup, soya sauce and honey. This time round, I used the plum sauce which I bought a couple of months back and totally forgotten about it. I only used these 3 sauces for this chicken.

The result

Ingredients
1 chicken (about 1.4kg)
1 thumb size ginger, blend into paste
3 cloves garlic, blend into paste
2-3 tbsp plum sauce
3-4 tsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp ketchup
2-4 tbsp honey

Method
1. Clean and pat dry chicken
2. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and rub the marinade on the chicken
3. Leave the chicken in the refrigerator for at least 2 hrs
4. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius and roast the chicken for about 40-60 minutes or till the skin turns brown and crispy. Baste the chicken with the leftover marinade in between the roasting and turn the chicken over during the last 10mins
5. Cut chicken into bite size and serve hot

My chicken rice is never complete without any vege. I made a simple stir-fry vege omitting soya sauce or stock. I added slices of sotong balls and surprisingly, that gives the vege some flavour. On top of the that, the nice combination of vege made the dish taste refreshing, topped with fried shallots.

A peek at the final product.

Easy Baked Salmon

I love salmon be it raw or cooked. However, for the latter, I am a little bit fussy - I like grilled/pan-fried salmon to be juicy and not dry. The experiences I had dining at restaurants, the salmon fillet has the tendency to be a little dry, hence I hardly order grilled salmon. If given a choice, I would rather eat it raw.

Salmon being a superfood, I make it a point to bake it at least once a week usually on a weekend. My dds love them and can finish a 200-300gm fillet at one meal. I have tried pan-frying, steaming and baking and find baking gives me more flavour. I also realised that adding white onions and fresh tomatoes make the salmon juicy and flavourful.

This was what I baked last Friday for dinner. No fuss, just need chopped the tomatoes and onion. The fish was marinated in the morning before I went to work.

Ingredients
1 salmon fillet (about 200-300g)
1 plump tomato, chopped
half white onion, sliced into rings (you can use yellow onions too)
a few sprigs spring onions
1-2tbsp olive oil
parsley flakes

Marinate
salt
black & white pepper, freshly ground
a few dashes of worcestershire sauce (4-5)
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method
1. Clean and pat dry fillet
2. Rub fillet with salt and pepper
3. Splash a few dashes of worcestershire sauce and lemon juice, making sure that it covers the fillet
4. Leave it to marinate for at least 2 hrs in the refrigerator
5. Preheat ove to 200 degrees celcius
6. Place marinated fillet on a aluminium foil and pour the leftover marinate over
7. Place chopped tomatoes, onions and spring onion on top of the fillet, splash olive oil generously over the fillet and wrap it
8. Bake it in the oven for about 15mins, take the fish out and open the top of the aluminium foil and bake it further for another 20mins or till the top browns a little
9. Sprinkle some parsley flakes or dill
10. Serve immediately with steamed rice

Easy Peasy Cheese Toast & Cheesy Potato Bake

I was a little lazy yesterday and didn't want to have rice for dinner. I remembered that I still have some potatoes to clear, made this for dinner with salad at the side.

I used Ratna's recipe for the cheesy potato bake. You can get it here. Mine didn't look very brown because I didn't bake it long enough and I didn't have chives, so subsitute with spring onions instead.

For this, I had some leftover bread expiring soon so might as well do a cheese toast to eat it with the potato. Very simple to do, you can even get your kid to help you.

Ingredients
4 slices bread
butter/magarine
shredded cheese
parsley flake

Method
1. Spread butter/margarine on the bread
2. Sprinkle shredded cheese and topped with parsley flakes
3. Toast it in the oven toaste for about 4-5 minutes or till the top browns
4. Serve immediately

Fried Noodles

This morning while sending my girls to school, a delicious aroma of someone cooking sambal was lingering in the morning air. The smell soo delicious that I could not resist thinking about fried noodles. It has been a while since I had a plate of hot fried noodles, malay style. I like my noodles to be a little moist with succulent prawns and plentiful of greens. So during my lunch break, I went to Cold Storage to get all the necessary ingredients and earlier today, we had this for dinner 8-D *burp*

A big plate of noodles

Close up with juicy, succulent prawns

This version is not the exact malay style fried noodles because I used Masters Barbeque Sauce to replace the ketchup and soya sauce.

You can purchase this at Cold Storage or NTUC. The sauce is quite tomato-ish but with more flavour than ketchup.

Ingredients
500g hokkien noodles
1 ikan bilis stock cube (Maggi, No-MSG)
1 large onion
3 large fresh red chillies, remove seed if you don't want too spicy
200-300g prawns, deveined
1 piece fish cake, sliced thinly
1 bunch chye sim, washed thoroughly and chopped to 3 inches long
4-6 tbsp bbq sauce (more if you like)
3-4 tbsp olive oil

Method
1. Blend onion and chillies into paste
2. Heat oil in a wok and fry blended paste till fragrant
3. Crush the stock cube and add to the chillie paste, stir till well blend
4. Add fish cake slices and prawns and mix till they are cooked
5. Add bbq sauce and a little bit of water. Make sure there is some gravy so that the noodles will not be too dry
6. Add vegetables followed by noodles and stir them well with other ingredients
7. Serve immediately

Pilau Biryani

I was lazy to cook something from scratch today - still feeling a little tired from yesterday's outing. I was browsing my kitchen cabinet when I realised that I have 2 box of Shan's rice and spice mix I bought a couple of months back. I usually stock a few boxes for 'emergency' cases. I highly recommend this brand for those who do not have the time nor the skills to come out with a great tasting biryani. The package I bought comes with the rice, spice and also the colouring (in powder form). You can get this at Mustaffa.

the packaging

Instructions can be found at the back of the package. But I will just write down how I made it. I only used half of the rice.

Ingredients
1 packet pilau biryani rice & spice mix
500-750g beef/mutton/chicken
1 medium onion, thinly sliced and fried in ghee or butter
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp ginger paste
1-2 glass water
1-3 tbsp
1 cup evaporated milk (original uses yoghurt but I didn't have any)
Small handful mint, chopped

Method
1. Wash and soak rice for 30mins
2. Put water, ginger paste, garlic paste, meat and spice mix into a pot and cook over the stove until meat is tender
3. Add milk or yoghurt into the meat gravy and simmer till the gravy thickens
4. At the moment, boil about 6-10 glasses of water in a pot and add soaked rice
5. Add 1 tbsp salt into rice mixture and boil till rice is almost half cooked
6. Drained rice and put aside
7. Transfer meat gravy into a deep casserole dish
8. Cover the meat with the drained rice
9. Sprinkled colour powder (provided) over the rice
10. Sprinkle fried onions over, cover the casserole dish and cook in the microwave oven for about 5mins. Check for doneness as different microwave oven has different power
11. Use the rice paddle to mix the rice and meat
12. Sprinkle chopped mint and serve with salad/raita and pappadums

Assorted Sweet Bun

I was in a mood to bake some sweet buns after a long rest of baking. I made these buns last weekend and managed to baked 3 types of buns. I used the sweet bun recipe taken from the book 'Make Your Own Bread' by Novum Organum publication. Because I used a large egg (60gm), I reduced the water to 220ml instead of the original 260ml.

Butter buns, Sausage & Mayo buns

Top right hand : Sausage buns

The filling of the buns is entirely up to you. The following is the recipe for the dough. Unused dough can be kept in the fridge up to 4 days after the first rise. Wrap it with cling wrap or keep it in an airtight container. Thaw the dough to room temperature before use.

I used my breadmachine to knead the dough. The only difference is that I melted the butter.

Ingredients
220ml cold water (use 260ml if you are using small eggs)
1 egg, lightly beaten
50g butter
500g bread flour, sifted
7g instant yeast
100g sugar
5g salt

1. Mix bread flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl
2. Add cold water and egg to mixture and mix well
3. Add butter into dough and knead dough until elastic
4. Place dough in a mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it rise to double its size
5. Cut dough into small portions of about 40-60g and let it rest for another 10-15minutes
6. Shape dough into desired shapes and let it rise to double its size
7. Glaze buns with egg wash and bake till golden brown

Lemon Sourcream Pound Cake

I have yet to attempt a pound cake and finally decided to try this simple pound cake recipe (shared by one member at KC) with some modification. I have never baked a lemon cake before so I made up my mind to try one out since I have all the ingredients. The original recipe uses butter but I was very interested to try shortening instead. I may have eaten a cake made with shortening without my knowledge, hence the decision to bake one myself. In this recipe, I used the butter flavoured one and the result was really good, soft and moist. I hardly noticed any difference - it was just like using butter.

Light and fluffy inside

Ingredients
2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1 tsp salt
1 cup or 1 stick butter flavoured shortening (Crisco) plus 6 tbsp water
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
grated zest from 1 large lemon
1 cup light sour cream (200ml)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Grease and flour bundt pan
3. Cream shortening plus 6 tbsp water and sugar till fluffy (about 6 minutes).
4. Add in eggs, 1 at a time
5. Add lemon zest and blend.
6. Add flour to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream and scraping down side of bowl after each addition.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean (about 40mins - 1 hour)

Lemon Glaze:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Method
1. Mix all the 3 ingredients till well blend
2. Drizzle glaze over the cooled cake

Easy Baked Chimichanga

It has been a while since I last updated this blog. I was away on a business trip for a short 3 days and was swamped with work. To kick start again, I made an easy baked chimichanga last Friday. Chiminchanga is a deep fried borito filled with meat fillings. My version is a simple one inspired by a recipe by an online friend.

Freshly baked chiminchanga just out of the oven.

Chicken and cheese oozing out from the tortilla wrap

This dish uses mostly off the shelf ingredients. I used Tostitos salsa sauce and bought the tortillas from the supermarket. You can make your own if you like too.

This is the salsa which I used for this dish.

Ingredients
1-2 chicken fillet cut into strips
2 medium garlic, chopped
shredded cabbage or other vegetables that you like
1 bottle salsa
6 tortillas
shredded cheddar cheese
handful of basil or cilantro
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Method
1. Heat oil in a pan and stir fry chopped garlic till fragrant
2. Add chicken strips and fry till cooked
3. Pour salsa onto the chicken and mix till all the chicken are well coated with the sauce
4. Add cabbage and basil and stir till all the vege are cooked
5. Turn off the heat and let it cool
6. Pre-heat oven to 180 degree celcius
7. Take one tortilla and put some of the chicken salsa on the wrap
8. Sprinkle shredded cheese on the salsa mix and roll the wrap like springroll

Salsa topped with shredded cheese

9. Place chimichanga onto a lined baking tray and repeat with the next wrap
10.Brush chimichanga with olive oil and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes or till the top turns slighly brown
11. Serve immediately

American Chocolate Cake

This is a slightly overdue entry. I made this for dear hubby for Father's Day. A really simple but delicious chocolate cake. The recipe is taken from Alan Ooi's Easy Bake book (Thank you to one of my online friend for sharing this recipe). I made slight modification by increasing the whipping cream as the original is way too sweet and thick for me. Also it was not enough to cover the whole cake.

A slice of the cake

Ingredients
Cake
125gm butter
175gm brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
35gm cocoa powder
130ml warm water
140gm self-raising flour
Buttercream/whipped cream and fresh strawberries for decoration

Method
1. Mix in cocoa powder and water
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add in eggs, one at a time
4. Add in vanilla essence, beating well after each addition until well combine
5. Then add in a bit of cocoa mixture and flour slowly until finish
6. Spoon batter into a 18cm cake tin
7. Bake in preheated oven at 180degree for 10-15 minutes or till skewer comes out clean

Chocolate Ganache
90ml dairy whipping cream (original is 60ml)
110gm dark chocolate

Method
1. Heat dairy whipping cream until it comes to just under the boil, off the fire
2. Add in dark chocolate and mix well

Assembly
1. Cut cake into 3 layers
2. Spread ganache over first layer and cover with another layer
3. Repeat twice, cover the top and sides with ganache
4. Use a metal spatula to smoothen the top and sides
5. Pipe buttercream or whipped cream on the cake and put quartered strawberries on it

Potato & Tuna Gratin

Dinner today was pretty simple. I ran out of ideas on what to prepare when hubby suggested potato gratin. Total time to prepare this is about 1 hour including baking time. I cooked my potatoes first because hubby doesn't like half cooked potatoes. To reduce the preparation time, I zapped the potatoes for about 3-4 minutes in the microwave oven.

Just out of the oven - golden brown and bubbly 8-)

Served

I served this with haloumi cheese bread (will update the recipe later) - toasted, buttered and sprinkled with parsley and the combination was simply delicious. My hubby actually ate almost 3/4 of the dish .. heh

Ingredients

3 medium size potatoes, cooked and sliced thinly
2 small tomatoes, sliced
1 can tuna in mayonnaise - I used Ayam Brand tuna
1 can nestle cream
shredded cheese (cheddar and mozzarella)
2-3 tbsp plain flour
freshly ground pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius
2. Greased casserole dish with butter
3. Arranged half of the sliced, cooked potatoes at the bottom of the dish
4. Add half of the sliced tomatoes
5. Spread half of the tuna on the tomatoes followed by freshly ground pepper
6. Sprinkle 1 - 1 1/2 tsp plain flour followed by shredded cheese
7. Put the other half of the potatoes, followed by tomatoes, tuna,pepper and flour
8. Pour cream over the gratin and sprinkle shredded cheese generously over the cream
9. Bake in the oven for about 20minutes till the top is bubbly and golden brown
10. Serve immediate with salad or garlic bread

Salmon Sushi

I love sushi and sashimi especially salmon. I was sort of craving for one after seeing one of my online friend's homemade sushi and decided to make some for myself too.

To me, sushi is actually not very difficult to make. Rolled sushi is a little bit more troublesome but generally they are still pretty ok. One thing good about making sushi is that you can be as creative as you want when it comes to the filling.

The sushi rice recipe I used is very simple. To have a more flavourful rice, you may want to add konbu/kelp during the first minutes of cooking the rice. I did mine without it.

Simple Sushi Rice

Ingredients
1 cup calrose rice (short grain rice), you can use japanese rice if you want to
1 cup water

Vinegar
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Wash rice till the water clears and soak it for about 30minutes
2. Drain the water and add 1 cup of water into the rice and cook it either in the rice cooker, microwave or the on the stove
4. Once the rice is cook leave it covered for about 10-15minutes
5. Fluff the rice with rice paddle and cover the rice pot again with a kitchen towel for another 10minutes
6. While waiting, mix all the vinegar mixture and heat it on the stove until sugar dissolves
5. Transfer and spread rice in a non-metallic bowl, sprinkle the vinegar mixture into the rice and fold rice gently while fanning it
6. Once rice reaches room temperature, the rice is ready to be used. Cover it with a damp kitchen towel if you do not want to use it immediately

Easy Vege & Pasta Casserole

This is an extremely easy dish especially when you have only like less than an hour to prepare a decent meal. However, for this dish to taste great, you need to use a good sauce. I didn't make the pasta sauce from scratch, just got it off the shelf. I love to stock up this brand because of the flavours that it has.

The sauce I used to make this dish.

You can get this easily at any major supermarket, the best would be Cold Storage if you can't find it at NTUC. This is one of my favourite sauce - very tasty.

Ingredients

Serves 2
150-200g macaroni
100-200g mixed vege (I used a mixture of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushroom, young corn)
half a bottle of Leggos Stir Through pasta sauce
shredded cheese, mozzarella and cheddar, enough to cover the pasta

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degree celcius
2. Boil macaroni till al-dente, drain and toss with a little olive oil to prevent them from sticking
3. Blanch mixed vege till half cook (I prefer mine to be crunchy)
4. Pour cooked pasta and mixed vege in a deep casserole dish
5. Pour the sauce over and toss the pasta and vege till well coated with the sauce
6. Sprinkle shredded cheese generously over the prepared pasta and vege
7. Bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes or till the cheese turn golden brown
8. Serve hot

Pizza

Pizza is my significant other's favourite food. Whenever I ran out of ideas to cook, or have some veges to clear, this will be one of our regular meals during the weekends. However, this time I took a challenge to make it on a weekday after coming back from work. Of course it took me 2 days in total to come out with this perfect pizza. I made the dough the night before and let it proof in the fridge for almost 24 hrs, the result was fantastic.

Thanks to Del (aka Hula_mom) for sharing this great recipe (It is my favourite now.) The cornmeal gives the pizza that extra flavour. Also, before putting the pizza base on the pan, sprinkle some cornmeal on the pan - makes it fragrant and lots of flavour.

The recipe is similar to the recipe that I used regularly except that this one uses bread flour instead of all purpose flour. The rest of the ingredients are the same. I used my breadmachine to knead the dough but you can knead it manually if you like.

Ingredients

Makes 2 12inch pizza base
1 cup water
2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
1 tbsp cornmeal (grainy)
2 tsp instant yeast

Method

By Breadmachine
1. Dump all the ingredients into the breadmachine pan in the above order and select 'Dough'
2. Once the dough program has ended, take the dough out and punch it down
3. Lather some olive oil on the dough, wrap or cover dough with cling wrap and let it proof in the refrigerator for at least 12 hrs.

By hand
1. Mix flour, cornmeal and salt together
2. Add instant yeast and mix it well (Avoid direct contact with the salt)
3. Add water and knead the it into the dough
4. Add oil and continue kneading till the dough becomes elastic
5. Lather the dough with olive oil and wrap or cover dough with cling wrap and let it proof for at least 12 hrs.

Preparing the base
1. Take dough out of the refrigerator and leave it out till it reaches room temperature
2. Punch down the dough to let the air out but do not over punch it
3. Split the dough into 2 equal balls
4. Roll the dough out and top it with your pizza sauce and toppings of your choice. If you want a pan pizza type, let the base proof for about 30 mins before you start with the toppings.
5. Preheat oven to 200 degree celcius and bake the pizza till golden brown

Note: If you are using active dry yeast, you will need to activate the yeast with warm water before you can use it.

Steamed Egg White Rainbow Cake

I have not been baking for a while and my hand got itchy to bake one. But unfortunately younger daughter fell ill and I had to change my plans and make a steamed cake instead. Found an old recipe in my recipe file and thought of giving it a try. This cake uses only egg whites which I have quite a bit left in the freezer to clear.

The layering of the cake can be quite time consuming but it was worth every effort.

This is the overall look of the cake.

This is the closeup.

The original recipe uses 3 colours but I only used 2 colours, red and chocolate from the chocolate emulco. The other is the original colour of the cake batter.

Ingredients
500g egg white
60g evaporated milk
1 tbsp vanilla essence (You can use butter oil or sweetcorn oil also)
150g melted butter
225g castor sugar
300g top flour
1 tbsp ovalette/sponge cake stabilizer
3 colours (red, green and yellow), 1/2 tsp for each colour
1 tbsp chocolate emulco
a pinch of salt

Method
1. Beat egg whites at high speed. Add sugar bit by bit once the egg whites turns bubbly. Continue beating till soft peaks.
2. Add flour, milk, ovalette and salt and continue mixing.
3. Add melted butter and mix till well blend.
4. Split batter equally into 4 parts and add one colour to each part
5. Add chocolate emulco into one of the part
6. Grease a baking tin with butter and scoop 1 tbsp of yellow mixture into the centre of the baking tin, continue with 1 tbsp of the red onto the yellow mixture, scoop 1 tbsp of the green mixture onto the red, scoop 1 tbsp of the chocolate mixture on the green and repeat with the yellow, red, green and chocolate until finish.
7. Steam on high heat for about 30 minutes or till cake is done.

Hard Boiled Egg & Taukwa in Salted Soya Bean

This is generally a protein packed dish. My mom loves to make this with leftover fried fish - my dad's favourite. But for me, I prefer to have it with hard boiled eggs and taukwa (firm beancurd). This dish is very easy to prepare, just need to chop the ingredients but you have to fry the beancurd before adding it to the dish. That to me is the only troublesome part.

Ingredients
4 hard boiled eggs
2 taukwa (firm beancurd), cut into 4 and fry till slightly golden brown
1 large onion, sliced
1 medium garlic, sliced
2cm ginger, crushed and chopped
1-2 fresh green chillies, sliced
1 stalk large lemongrass, sliced thinly
3 small/2 large assam keping
3-4 tbsp salted soya bean
2 tbsp oil
1/2 to 1 cup water

Method
1. Heat oil in a pan. Once hot, add sliced onions, garlic, ginger, chillies and lemongrass and stir fry till fragrant
2. Add 1/2 cup of water and let it simmer for about 2 minutes
3. Add assam keping, stir mixture and continue simmer for about 5 minutes
4. Add salted soya bean and simmer till the gravy starts to bubble
5. Add hard boiled eggs and fried taukwa and simmer till the water reduced. You can add more salted soya bean if you like it salty or more water if you like more gravy
7. Serve with hot steamed rice

Spicy Steamed Corn

I usually have steamed corn as a side dish for dinner but usually it is just plain steamed corn. Saw this interesting version in a cook book and decide to give it try since I love spicy dishes. I modify the recipe slightly by adding fresh chopped basil. I just love basil.

Ingredients
2 corn, cut into half
5 cm ginger, grated
3 clove garlic, grated
1 large fresh red chilli, chopped - more if you like it spicy or remove seeds if you don't want spicy
handful of chopped basil (optional)
2 tsp white/black peppercorn, crushed
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp fish sauce

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients except the corn
2. Arrange corns on a plate and topped them with the above mixture including the sauce
3. Steam till cook and serve immediately

Udon Soup

I seriously do not know what to call this dish. It is actually a clear soup or rather a yong tau fu soup which was discussed at a parenting forum (M4M) which I frequent. I have never tried brewing soup using soya beans but probably have tasted it outside. Since I have some udon I bought last week and some leftover fishball and fishcake, I decided to try this for dinner.

I used a pressure cooker to hasten the softening of the soya beans. Otherwise I would have to boil it over the stove for an hour or more. I also cheated in one of the ingredients - using a chicken bouillon cube instead. The taste would definitely be richer with chicken bones.

Ingredients

1-1 1/2 tbsp soya beans, washed
1 tbsp ikan bilis, washed
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 litres of water
salt & pepper to taste
fishcake, julien
fishballs
chye sim, cut into bite sizes and blanched
udon

Method

1. Boil all the ingredients over the stove for about 1 hour. If you are using a pressure cooker, you can boil for about 20-30 minutes. By then the soya beans would have already soften.
2. Add salt and pepper to taste
3. Add fishcake slices and fishball and boil for another 30 minutes
4. Prepare the udon and blanched greens in a bowl
5. Pour the hot soup over and garnish with toasted shallots, spring onions and a few drops of sesame oil
6. Serve

Fish Fillet in Golden Plum Sauce

Just like the garlic fried rice, this dish was prepared using the left over fish fillets that I made yesterday for the girls. I thought of making sweet & sour dish but decided against it since my eldest doesn't like anything that is spicy.

The sauce used was a recipe by Gina (KitchenCapers) but I just made some modification by adding vegetables. I like my dish to be colourful but unfortunately, I had more green and missing the orange and red.

This is a non-spicy dish. But you can add some fresh chillies for some zing. I will omit the fish part but generally you can use fried fish or fillet.

Ingredients

200ml golden plum sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water
Green/Red capsicum/bell peppers, cut into bite size
1 small japanese cucumber, cut into bite size
3 ring slices of pineapple, cut into bite size
1 tsp cornstarch mix with a bit of water as thickening agent


Method

1. Heat pan/pot and mix golden plum sauce, sugar and water and stir till well combined
2. Pour mixed sauce into the hot pan/pot
3. Once it is bubbly, add the cut vegetables and let it simmer
4. Add cornstart mixture to thicken the sauce
5. Adjust the sauce by adding more plum sauce, sugar or water accordingly
6. Prepare the fish fillet on a plate
7. Once the vegetables are cooked and sauce thickened, turn heat off and pour sauce over the fish
8. Serve immediately

Garlic Fried Rice

Dinner today was prepared using yesterday's left over. I had some left over rice from yesterday and this afternoon while surfing, found an easy fried rice recipe that doesn't require lots of preparation. On top of that, the main ingredient used is something that I have in the fridge for quite a while, waiting to be used.

I made some slight modification from the original recipe based on the ingredients that I have.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice, (overnight)
1/4 - 1/2 cup mixed vegetables
2 tbsp chopped spring onions
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp butter/margarine
2 1/2 tbsp ready fried crispy garlic chips
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp chicken stock granules
Salt and sugar to taste
A dash of ground white/black pepper

Method

1. Heat oil and butter in a wok and fry mixed vegetables for 1–2 minutes
2. Push aside and add in beaten egg, scramble until cooked
3. Stir in rice and add salt, sugar and chicken stock to taste
4. Add spring onions and fry till all the ingredients are well combined
5. Add fried garlic crisps and a dash of ground white/black pepper to taste
6. Serve hot

Watercress with Fishball & Sweet Potato Soup

The weather has been pretty warm today and I decided to prepare a soup dish with my favourite green - watercress. This recipe originally uses spinach but I have decided to use watercress instead. I also added fishball and sweet potato to make it into a one dish soup. The result is one refreshing and cooling soup.

Ingredients

1 bunch watercress, washed and cut into half
1 medium onion
1 cm ginger
handful of ikan bilis, soaked
10-15 fishballs
1 medium sweet potatoes, cut into bit sizes
2 litre water
salt to taste

Method

1. Boil water over the stove
2. Grind onion, ginger and ikan bilis to a paste
3. Once the water starts to boil, pour the paste into the pot and stir
4. Add sweet potatoes and let it boil for 10 minutes
5. Add fishballs and let the soup continue to boil
6. Add salt to taste and lastly add the watercress, cover the pot and let it simmer for 5 minutes before turning the fire off
7. Leave the pot covered for 10-15 minutes to cook the greens
8. Serve hot

Sour & Spicy Fish

This simple chilli dish is supposed to be served over fried fish. Since I only have fish fillet in my freezer, I just made do with it.

Ingredients

Fish
1 large fish fillet
1 egg,lightly beaten
cornflour
Oil for frying

Sambal
5 fresh chillies, can mix with both green and red for colour
3 shallots
1 clove medium garlic
1 cm ginger
juice from 1 lime
1-2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1-2 tbsp oil


Method

Fish
1. Clean and pat dry fish fillet
2. Coat with cornflour, dip in egg mix and coat with cornflour again and deep fry till golden. Set aside.

Sambal
1. Heat oil and stir fry all the ingredients till soft and slightly brown
2. Drain the fried ingredients and place them in a food processor or use the pestle and mortar
3. Add sugar and salt and grind them if using the food processor or pound them if using pestle and mortar.
4. Add lime juice into the paste and mix throughly
5. Spoon paste onto the prepared fish
6. Serve hot

Sweet Soya Bean Curd Dessert (edited)

I have been wanting to make my own soya bean curd since the day I got my soya milk maker. However during that time I wasn't sure what I need to set the soya milk but finally found out that I can get the powder from Phoon Huat. Went to Phoon Huat yesterday and finally made my first homemade soya bean curd for breakfast this morning. The whole process took less than 30 minutes since my soya bean milk maker takes only 10 minutes to make the milk.

I have edited the recipe to add cornstarch to give the beancurd a smoother texture.

Ingredients:

Soya Bean Curd
3/4 cup soya bean, soaked overnight
1 litre water
1/2 tsp lactone
muslin cloth (if not using soya bean milk maker)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup warm water

Syrup
5-6 tbsp sugar
3 pandan leaves
1 1/2 cup water

Method
Soya Bean Curd (without soya bean milk maker)
1. Place cleaned, soaked soya beans and water into a food processor
2. Grind till very smooth and place the ground bean in the middle of the muslin cloth
3. Squeeze the soya milk into a pot until all the ground beans have been squeezed dry
4. Boil the freshly squeezed soya milk on the stove
5. Mix lactone, cornstarch and warm water and stir till smooth
6. Have a clean pot ready and put lactone mixture into the pot
7. Pour boiled soya milk into the ready pot with the lactone and let it set for about 10 minutes. DO NOT STIR.

Note: For those using the soya bean milk maker, go straight to (5) with the ready soya bean milk.

Syrup
1. Mix all the ingredients and boil over the stove till sugar dissolves
2. Keep aside to cool

To serve, pour syrup over the bean curd and serve warm.

Thyme Chicken Spaghetti

This dish uses the left over thyme chicken and it requires no cooking except for the spaghetti. A versatile dish that you can use whatever leftover chicken that you have and you can add any kinds of greens that you like. For me I prefer something simple, no specific vege just basil - lots of them :)

Ingredients

100g spaghetti/angel hair
1 pc thyme chicken (or cooked chicken), shredded
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
4-6 tbsp olive oil/extra-virgin oil
chilli peppers/flakes
handful of basil

Method

1. Boil spaghetti with a tsp of salt till al-dente
2. In a mixing bowl, mix oil, chopped garlic, salt, pepper, chilli peppers/flakes well
3. Once spaghetti is cooked, drain and put it into the bowl with the seasoned oil
4. Add shredded chicken and basil and toss the spaghetti till well coated
5. Add more oil or seasonings if needed
6. Serve immediately

Thyme Chicken

This chicken has been playing in my mind after watching Jamie Oliver on Discovery's Travel & Living channel. I finally made this for dinner earlier and verdict - very refreshing. Very lemony with a tinge of thyme. Nice to be eaten with steamed rice.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots or zucchini are added with the chicken during roasting so as to not to waste the chicken baste.

Original recipe has chopped bacon added to the herbed butter. I omitted this because I forgot to defrost my turkey bacon. This addition will give more flavour to the dish. You can use about 3-4 strips.

Ingredients

1 chicken
1 large garlic. chopped
zest from 1 lemon
lemon slices (from 1 lemon)
one bunch fresh thyme, chopped (abt 18gm)
70g butter, softened
salt & pepper
some potatoes/sweet potatoes/carrots/zucchini, cut into quarters
olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220C
2. Combine chopped garlic, thyme and zest from 1 lemon
3. Add salt and pepper and mix it well
4. Add softened butter into the herb mixed and mix till well blend
5. Stuff 3/4 of the herbed butter under the breast skin of the chicken
6. Use you hands to smoothen the skin so that the herbed butter is well distributed under the skin
7. Score the chicken thighs and smoothered the balance herbed butter on them and place chicken on the roasting tray
8. Cut the lemon into slices and put them into the chicken cavity
9. Sprinkle olive oil, salt and pepper onto the cut vegetables and place them with the chicken
10. Roast the chicken for about 45-60 mins or till the chicken is cooked

Chickpea Chapati

Dh is out on reservist and I was totally lost on what to have for lunch. Made this partly inspired by Jamie Oliver's flatbread. I didn't want to use a bread recipe, instead used the chapati recipe with some modification.

It is a very simple recipe, you can use your hand to knead and leave it for about 1-2hrs before rolling them out.

This recipe uses a bit of plain flour to make it soft. You can use 100% atta flour if you like.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups atta flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive/vegetable oil (I prefer olive oil)
1 cup warm water
1/2 can chickpea, mashed (I bought SW brand which has already been presoaked)
1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, coarsely grind
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, coursely grind

Method

1. Mix the flours and salt together
2. Add oil and water slowly into the flours and knead till it forms into a dough
3. Add mashed chickpea, coriander and cumin and mix well
4. Rest the dough covered with cling wrap for 1-2hrs
5. Shape the dough into size of a golf ball and roll it out thin
6. Place dough onto the hot girdle or non-stick pan till cook
7. Brush chapati with butter or ghee if you like
8. Serve hot with curry/kheema

Cocoa-Oreo Agar-Agar (Cocoa-Oreo jelly)

The weather has been pretty hot lately and I have been thinking of making a cold dessert. I had enough of ice-cream and after looking at my pantry, I realised that I still have some packets of agar-agar that are going to be expiring in a couple of months. I was inspired by one agar-agar recipe I found in the internet and end up making this cocoa jelly with oreos.

The end result wasn't what I wanted it to be but it tastes great. The final product supposed to have the oreos in the middle. I think I may have poured the second half mixture to fast that the oreos ended up floating. I will definitely put more oreos the next time round (I didn't have enough oreos left).

Ingredients

1 packet agar-agar powder (I use Rose brand)
1 litre water
250g sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
100ml whipping cream (dairy or non-dairy)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3-4 tbsp hot water
crushed oreos (abt 10-12 pcs or more)

Method

1. Combine water, agar-agar powder and sugar into a pot and heat it over the stove
2. When agar-agar powder and sugar have dissolved, add evaporated milk and leave it to boil, stirring occassionally with a balloon whisk
3. Add hot water to cocoa powder 1 tbsp at a time, mix it till well blend and put the cocoa mixture aside
4. Whip whipping cream till soft peak and put it aside
5. Once agar-agar mixture boils, remove it from the heat and stir and let it cool slightly
6. Add whipped cream slowly at the same time stirring the mixture, then add cocoa mixture and stir till well blend
7. Pour half of the mixture into the agar-agar mould and let it set for about 5-10 minutes
8. Sprinkle generously the crushed oreos and slowly pour the other half of the mixture into the mould
9. Let the agar-agar cool before keeping it in the fridge
10.Serve chilled

Zebra Cake (Sponge Cake)

My hands were feeling itchy after reading the thread on the zebra cake at jodelibakery. Since dh is out on reservist and I have some free time plus feeling a little bored, I baked this earlier. I used optima flour (spongecake mix) for this one. Taste wise is just perfect for me but I still need to work a little bit more on the stripes (the cake was a little bit shallow).

Ingredients

4 large eggs at room temperature
250g optima flour (I use Ailin's optima flour. You can also use Bake King brand)
50 ml water
65g butter, melted
some almond flakes

Cocoa mixture
4 tsp cocoa powder
6 tsp hot water
2 tsp chocolate emulco


Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and grease cake pan
2. Mix cocoa powder and chocolate emulco with hot water, stir till dissolved and put the mixture aside
2. Beat eggs and water at high speed till creamy
3. Add flour slowly into the mixture and continue beating at high for about 10-15 mins or until the batter turns pale
4. Pour melted butter and mix it at slow speed till well combined
5. Divide the batter into 2 equal portion and fold in cocoa mixture into one of the portion
6. Using normal tablespoon, scoop 3 tbsp of plain batter into the centre of the cake pan. Then scoop 3 tbsp of chocolate batter onto the plain batter in the cake pan
7. Repeat until you have finished about half of the batter, reduce to 2 tbsp and subsequently to 1 tbsp. The circle will become smaller as you pour
8. Sprinkle almond flakes to the cake and bake at 180 C for about 30 mins or until the skewer comes out clean

Roasted Sesame Chicken

I had one chicken left in the freezer and decided to roast it. I used Gina's (KitchenCapers) recipe but modified it slightly. I drizzled the sesame oil just before putting the chicken into the oven.

Ingredients

1 chicken cut into 4
100 ml water
150 ml oyster sauce
50g brown sugar
2 tbsp 5-spiced powder
1 large garlic, smashed
1 inch ginger, smashed
salt
some sesame seed for sprinkling
some sesame oil for drizzling

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C
2. Clean, pat dry chicken and rub some salt over chicken
3. Combine water, oyster sauce, brown sugar, 5-spiced powder, garlic and ginger into a pot and boil the mixture
4. Pour boiled mixture over chicken and leave it to marinate for about 10 minutes, turn chicken over and let it marinate for another 10 minutes
5. Arrange chicken on the roasting rack, sprinkle sesame seed on the chicken
6. Drizzle sesame oil on the chicken pieces and bake for about 30 - 40 minutes or till cooked
7. For dipping sauce, pour excess marinating sauce back to the pot and reheat, add a bit of water to dilute it a little
8. Serve chicken hot with dipping sauce

Easy Roasted Vege

This is a very easy dish which I make without fail at least once a week if I am too lazy to do any stir fry. It is a very versatile dish which you can add any spices and vege to your liking.

Ingredients

2 medium size russet/red potatoes with skin, washed and cut into wedges
1 zucchini, cut into bite size
2 small carrots
3-5 tbsp olive oil with garlic (can use plain olive oil)
1-2 tsp paprika
1-2 tsp parsley flakes
1-2 tsp dried dill weed
1-2 tsp mixed herb
salt and pepper


Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C
2. Combine all the vege, oil and spices and make sure that all the veges are coated well
3. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or till potatoes and carrots are cooked

Mint Rice

I was getting a little bit tired eating white rice and decided to cook flavoured rice. With the weather that has been pretty scorching, I made mint rice instead.

The rice was served with roasted sesame chicken and roasted vegetable. The recipes will be added after this.

Ingredients

2 cups basmati rice, washed and drained
1 small yellow onion, chopped or mince
4 cups chicken stock
handful of chopped mint
2 tbsp olive oil (you can use butter/ghee if you want a more flavourful rice)

Method

1. Heat oil in a pot/pan
2. Add chopped/minced onion and stir fry till soft
3. Add rice and stir well. Make sure that the rice grains are well covered with oil and onion
4. Transfer rice to the rice cooker, add chicken stock and let rice cook
5. Once the rice is cook, add chopped mint and stir rice gently making sure that the mint are distributed nicely
6. Leave cooked rice for about 10-15 minutes before serving