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Gong Xi Fa Cai

2012-01-21T22:53:00.000Z

Gong Xi Fa Cai
Wishing all my friends and readers A Happy Lunar New Year. May this Dragon year bring you love, luck, joy and prosperity!!

Cookies that I baked this year including Nian Gao which is the first time I am making it and it looks ok. Will tell you next week how it tastes when I will serve it at my dinner!

Corgette and papaya masak titek

2012-01-08T21:44:00.000Z

Papaya masak titek revisited - halal

I do make papaya masak titek sometimes as I love the taste of cooked papayas. It is so sweet in the savoury soup. This time I addded courgettes to the the papayas and the almost crunchy texture of the courgettes and the soft feel of the papayas together with the spicyness of the chilli in the soup - what can I say.... it is so nice on a cold winter's day.

Ingredients:
(A)
3 candlenuts
1 tbsp shrimp paste
1 big onion or 10 shallots
1 red chilli or more depending on how much heat you like
1 tbsp ground black pepper

1 Fish Cube
2 green papayas - cubed
1 courgette - skinned and cubed
12 big raw prawns or 2 fish fillets - sliced into pieces (white fish)
700 ml water
50 gm dried prawns - ground
50 gm salted fish

Method:
1. Grind A to a fine paste
2. Skin papaya and cut into pieces, likewise with the courgette.
3. Fill pan with the 700 ml water, add A, ground dried prawns and fish stock. Bring to boil. Put in the courgette pieces and boil for about 8 mins till it is half cooked, then add in the papaya pieces and boil till almost tender. Add fish slices or prawns or both for 5 mins till seafood is cooked. Remove from heat and serve.

Kuih Tutu

2012-01-07T17:12:00.004Z

Putu Piring aka Kuih Tutu

I tried making this some time back when I was making puttu mayam and used the same recipe to try and make putu piring, but was unsuccessful.

Tried goggling for a recipe and still did not get a good vibe with what I managed to find.

Then whilst I was goggling again yesterday and saw cookwithnobook's blog. posting. Thought I would try it again today and yep, think I have almost finally got it.

The first 2 that I made looked out. Ate 1 whilst it was hot and it was alright. But upon cooling, it turned out hard.

Tried it again but this time didnt pack it too tightly and waited for it to cool and this time, woo hoo, success!!! So here is my adaption to the recipe.

I cup rice flour gave me 5 putu pirings.

Ingredients
1 cup rice flour
60ml ( adjustable ) water dissolved with a generous pinch of fine salt
a couple of pandan leaves cut into 2 inch pieces
Filling:
80gm gula melaka chopped and mixed with a tsp of caster sugar

Method：
1. Place the rice flour on a piece of kitchen paper on a plate. Mix it up with the pandan leaves and microwave on high for a minute and a half. Discard leaves and cool the flour.
2. Drizzle water evenly over the roasted flour, stirring with a fork. The flour should just be moistened and not soggy, forming big crumbs. Press the crumbs through a sieve, with the back of a ladle. It should yield a fine crumb texture. For ease , do in very small batches.
3. Spoon rice crumble into the mould. Add 1 tsp of gula melaka-sugar mix. Do not allow the gula to touch the base of the mould.
4. Top with another spoon of rice crumbs. Press gently with spoon for a smooth
finish.
5. Steam for about 12 mins.

Steamed tapioca kuih

2012-01-02T10:33:00.000Z

Steamed Tapioca Kuih

I love my tapioca cooked any way and I have 2 other friends who are also crazy about tapioca too and one of them made some bo bo cha cha and that led me to crave for it. But when I looked in the freezer, I discovered that my stash of yam was depleted. Huh... so much for that!

And since I have a few packets of frozen, grated tapioca or cassava as they are known here, thought I would make a steamed kuih. I was going to make the pasar malam kind which is the fried version but on second thoughts, steaming would be a healthier version, hence...

It is a very simple kuih to make. All you need are:

Ingredients:

450 gms grated tapioca - put half quantity in a muslin cloth and squeeze out the liquid
80 gms caster sugar - more or less to taste
100 ml coconut milk - do not add all at once
half grated coconut - white bits only - steamed with some salt for about 5 minutes
food colouring

Method:

1. Place the tapioca and sugar in a bowl. Add the coconut milk.
2. Add colouring
3. To test for consistency and sweetness, place a little on a plate and steam for about 10 mins.
4. Add more sugar or coconut milk as you like and place the whole mixture into a cake tin or in my case, I used a pyrex bowl and steam for about 20 - 30 mins.
5. When the mixture is cool, cut into squares or diamonds and roll into grated coconut.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000Z

Happy New Year to all my dear friends and readers!

May 2012 bring you more love, joy, happiness, peace, Health and wealth!

Yellow mee

2011-12-31T13:03:00.000Z

Home made Fresh Hokkien Mee

This is another thing that I have been wanting to make and since I was sort of craving to have laksa and too lazy to go to the supermarket to get some yellow noodles, I thought that this was as good a time as any to try any make my noodles and see if I can get to have my laksa!

Ingredients (makes about 600 gm)
250 gm plain (all-purpose) flour
250 gm bread flour
1½ tbsp alkai water
1½ tsp salt
500 ml/2 cups water - add slowly as water is dependent on absorption of flour

Method:

Using a noodle extruder, such as for making string hoppers

Add plain flour,bread flour and salt together in a bowl.

Using a wooden spoon, quickly add in the boiling water and stir the flour mixture to form a thick paste. At this stage add alkali water.

Form paste into a lump. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle but still warm, knead into a smooth dough. Cover and rest dough for 30 minutes.

To make noodles, bring a large pot of water to the boil. Fill extruder with dough and extrude noodles into boiling water in long continuous strands until extruder is empty. When water returns to the boil and noodles float, scoop noodles out and drop into another pot filled with cold water (or put into a colander and run cold water over noodles). Stir some oil into noodles to keep them separated. Repeat until dough is used up.

Note: I used only 100 gm of plain and 100 gm of bread flour and 200 ml of water and got about 2 1/2 bowls of noodles.

If you do not have an extruder, then roll out the dough thinly and cut finely into noodles or use a pasta machine if you have one.

Chicken Bak Kwa

2011-12-30T16:27:00.008Z

Chicken Bak Kwa (Halal)

I made bbq pork some time back and have always wanted to make a chicken version so my friends who do not eat pork can try it as well. This time, I added chillie paste to it to get it spicy like how they do in Singapore.

Taste wise, it turned out quite alright and I am quite pleased with the result.

Ingredients:
500 gms chicken thigh (minced)

Marinate:

1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soya sauce
1/2 - 1 thsp dark soya sauce
50 gm dark brown sugar
30 gm sugar
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp chilli paste (optional)
1/8 tsp 5 spiced powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp fresh orange juice
a big drop of red food coloring (optional)

Method:
Season ground chicken with the marinate and leave in the fridge overnight or at least 4 hours.(marinating is more flavorful but so often i have made without marinating and the result is just as good.
Turn oven to 150C.
Oil baking sheet, put a chinese bowl of marinated chicken on baking sheet and try to spread meat as thinly as possible to cover the whole sheet.
Bake in oven for 10 mins or until firm to the touch.

Remove from oven and using a pair of scissors or a knife and cut meat into pieces.
Repeat (3) to (5)
Meat is now ready for grilling or wrapped in foil and freeze until needed.

kuih pie tee/popiah

2011-12-29T12:17:00.007Z

Kuih Pie Tee/Popiah

Since I am on holiday till the New Year, there are a number of things that I have been wanted to make, so what better time than now?

On one of my mum's visit a couple of years ago, I asked her to bring me a kuih pie tee mold and it has been sitting in my kitchen drawer since then. So I resolved to dust off the cobwebs off it and make some pie tee shells.

After a couple of dud shells, ie, with holes in the bottom or very open tops, I managed to get the hang of it and got decent looking shells!

Recipe I got from my mum is as follows:

Batter for pie tee shells

100g plain flour
1 tbsp rice flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
180ml water
Enough oil for deep frying

Method
For the shells :

1. Sift plain flour and rice flour together. Place sifted and salt into a mixing bowl. Add egg and mix with water to make a runny batter.

2 Heat oil in a deep wok or pan. Place pie tee mould in the hot oil for one minute. Remove the hot mould and dip 3/4 way into the batter.

3.Put mould in hot oil until shell is golden in colour. Jiggle the mould a bit and it should dislodge the shell, but if it does not, use a knife to slide it out. Remove the shell with chopsticks or a pair of tongs and place on absorbent paper to cool. Store in an airtight container or tin until needed.

Filling: (same as for popiah)

2 medium sized bangkwang/yam bean/jicama - julienned
2 carrots -julienned
1 thsp taucheo (salted soy beans)- mashed
2 cloves garlic - finely chopped
soy sauce to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in kuali and when hot, fry the taucheo for a few seconds, then add in the chopped garlic. Fry for another few seconds, then add in the julienned bangwang and carrots. Add soy sauce to taste and half cup of water.
2. Bring to boil then turn fire down to low and let it simmer for about 15 mins.
3. It is now ready to be used as filling for pie tee or bangkwang.

Note:

I do not add anything else in my popiah fillings but my mum adds in slice belly pork and tau kwa.

Garnish for pie tee:
Chopped boil egg
Cooked prawns
coriander
pounded chilli with a little vinegar

1. Fill pie tee shell 3/4 way with above filling.
2. Then add chopped egg, prawns, coriander and top with chilli sauce.

Egg Skin

Ingredients:
100 gm plain flour
50 gm tapioca flour
2 eggs
200 ml water - more or less
1 tbsp oil
pinch of salt

Method:

1. Mix flours and egg together, then add in water, slowly till you get a runny batter.
2. Add in the oil and mix well.
3. Heat a pan and brush with a little oil. Then pour in 3/4 ladle of the mixture and swirl round the pan.
4. Once the edges curl, and the skin moves easily, remove from pan.

Garnish for popiah:

Cucumber - julienned
Bean sprouts - blanced in boiling water for 20 seconds
Hard boiled eggs - chopped
Boiled prawns
Round lettuce
Coriander leaves
sweet flour sauce
pounded chillie

Optional:
Ground peanuts

Method for folding popiah:

1. Take one egg skin. Place a piece of lettuce leaf on it. Place some sweet flour sauce and chilli paste and spread round.
2. Add bangkwang filling on the lettuce leaf. Top with cucumber, bean sprouts, egg, boiled prawn and coriander leaf.
3. Fold egg skin into a packet and enjoy!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T23:59:00.006Z

A Blessed Christmas everyone

Sorry I have been missing for so long. Went back to Singapore for 2 weeks in November, then a week at work and then I am off for 2 weeks again before starting work in the New Year.

It has been a rather hectic week after returning from Singapore. Working till late almost everyday trying to clear my work and then once home, too lazy to do anything except to cook dinner.

Monday wss my last day of work and come Tuesday I thought yay.. I could just relax... but we got a call from Katrina to ask if we could babysit James as his nanny was not feeling well... so ... yes babysat James for the whole day. He is such a good boy though, no trouble at all.

Anyways, made a cake for our cleaner and here's the cake.

Ingredients
1 lb (450 g) currants *
6 oz (175 g) sultanas *
6 oz (175 g) raisins *
2 oz (50 g) glacé cherries, rinsed, dried and finely chopped
2 oz (50 g) mixed candied peel, finely chopped
3 tablespoons brandy, plus extra for 'feeding'
8 oz (225 g) plain flour
½ level teaspoon salt
¼ level teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ level teaspoon ground mixed spice
8 oz (225 g) unsalted butter
8 oz (225 g) soft brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 oz (50 g) almonds, chopped (the skins can be left on)
1 level dessertspoon black treacle
grated zest 1 lemon
grated zest 1 orange
4 oz (110 g) whole blanched almonds (only if you don't intend to ice the cake

Equipment

You will also need an 8 inch (20 cm) round cake tin or a 7 inch (18 cm) square tin, greased and lined with silicone paper (baking parchment). Tie a band of brown paper round the outside of the tin for extra protection.

Method
You need to begin this cake the night before you want to bake it. All you do is weigh out the dried fruit and mixed peel, place it in a mixing bowl and mix in the brandy as evenly and thoroughly as possible. Cover the bowl with a clean tea cloth and leave the fruit aside to absorb the brandy for 12 hours.
Next day pre-heat the oven to gas mark 1, 275°F (140°C). Then measure out all the rest of the ingredients, ticking them off to make quite sure they're all there. The treacle will be easier to measure if you remove the lid and place the tin in a small pan of barely simmering water. Now begin the cake by sifting the flour, salt and spices into a large mixing bowl, lifting the sieve up high to give the flour a good airing. Next, in a separate large mixing bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together until it's light, pale and fluffy. Now beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add them to the creamed mixture a tablespoonful at a time; keep the whisk running until all the egg is incorporated. If you add the eggs slowly by degrees like this the mixture won't curdle. If it does, don't worry, any cake full of such beautiful things can't fail to taste good!
When all the egg has been added, fold in the flour and spices, using gentle, folding movements and not beating at all (this is to keep all that precious air in). Now fold in the fruit, peel, chopped nuts and treacle and finally the grated lemon and orange zests. Next, using a large kitchen spoon, transfer the cake mixture into the prepared tin, spread it out evenly with the back of a spoon and, if you don't intend to ice the cake, lightly drop the whole blanched almonds in circles or squares all over the surface. Finally cover the top of the cake with a double square of silicone paper with a 50p-size hole in the centre (this gives extra protection during the long slow cooking).
Bake the cake on the lowest shelf of the oven for 4½-4¾ hours. Sometimes it can take up to ½-¾ hour longer than this, but in any case don't look till at least 4 hours have passed. Cool the cake for 30 minutes in the tin, then remove it to a wire rack to finish cooling. When it's cold 'feed' it – make small holes in the top and base of the cake with a cocktail stick or small skewer, then spoon over a few teaspoons of brandy, wrap it in double silicone paper secured with an elastic band and either wrap again in foil or store in an airtight container. You can now feed it at odd intervals until you need to ice or eat it.

Note: * I did not buy separate currants, sultanas and raisins. I bought the mixed fruit and just used 800 gms of it!

Cake before covering with marzipan and fondant

Covered cake

Banana Blueberry Buttermilk Bread

2011-10-29T21:48:00.003+01:00

Banana Blueberry Buttermilk Muffin/Banana Cranberry

I haven't been baking lately as I have been trying to be good and lose some weight before going to Singapore. Saw this recipe online but cannot for the life of me remember where now, but as it looked low fat, thought I'd give it a go and I do not regret making them.

These are so gorgeous and moist and healthy too! First round made them with blueberries and tried them a second time but this time using dried cranberries and they taste just as good.

Took them to work and my colleagues loved them.

Ingredients
3/4 cup nonfat or low-fat buttermilk*
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
11/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I omitted)
11/4 cups blueberries or cranberries, fresh or frozen or dried

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. Whisk buttermilk, brown sugar, oil and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in mashed bananas.
3. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a medium bowl.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in blueberries. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
5. Bake until the top is golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Let cool for about 2 hours before slicing. **

* I used yoghurt.
** I baked them in muffin cups for about 20 mins.

Banana Cranberry

Banana Blueberry

Cream Puffs

2011-10-23T20:56:00.002+01:00

Cream Puffs

I love Japanese cream puffs. They are soooo good. Cream puffs has been on my list of things to make but with me trying to go on a diet, have not been baking much. But my friend D baked some and did not like the texture she ended up with. So I told her that I would try to bake some and if my puffs were soft, I would share the recipe with her. Recipe is taken from Just Hungry's blog. Sorry D, couldnt find my recipes, but looked at this and thought it was a close resemblance to mine.

I halved the recipe and still ended up with about 12 puffs. I used 2 eggs. In my haste to make the puffs, I made the pastry first, but please make the filling first and let it cool down before making the pastry. But even though I got things the wrong way round, I completed the baking and the filling of the puffs all within 45 mins!

Custard cream filling

6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugarca
a pinch of salt
2 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out and put into the milk
1/2 cup of flour and cornstarch combined (or one or the other alone), blended and sifted
2 Tbs unsalted butter

Heat the milk with the vanilla bean slowly. (You can also use vanilla extract instead, in which case you'd add about 1 tsp. at the very end.)

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and salt with a whisk until the mixture is a pale lemony yellow. This indicates that the sugar has melted into the yolks. Add the flour-cornstarch mixture.

Fish out the vanilla bean from the hot milk, and add the milk in dribbles to the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Heat over a low to medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, for about 2-3 minutes until you can't detect any floury taste. Add the butter, and the vanilla extract . Let cool for several hours, covered.

Make the custard filling several hours in advance.

In the meantime, make the choux buns.

Choux pastry
1 cup of water
1 cup of beaten eggs (about 5 large eggs, but be rather accurate about this - it will really affect the results)
100g / 3 1/2 oz. of unsalted butter
1 cup of all-purpose white flour
a pinch of salt

Method:
Heat the oven to 210 ° C . Line the pans with the baking paper.

Cut up the butter, and put it with the water and salt in a pan. Heat over medium heat until the butter has melted. Dump in the flour, and mix vigorously with a wooden spoon, until the flour is completely incorporated. The dough ball should slightly film the pan with a floury residue. Take off the heat and cool the bottom by putting it on a damp kitchen towel, or briefly running cold water over it.

Add the eggs, little by little, to the pan, mixing vigorously between additions. It may curdle at first, but it will all get incorporated.

Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Scoop the warm dough into piping bag. Cut the end off one corner with scissors, to make an opening about .5 cm / 1/4 inch or so. Pipe into circles of about 4 cm and leave space in between the dough for them to spread. Bake for about 10 mins and then switch them around and bake for another 10 mins.

The internet tells you to slash the puffs and return to the oven for a few more mins to dry the inside but I prefer them soft, so I leave them out.

Surprise Birthday Party

2011-10-21T20:09:00.002+01:00

Surprise Birthday Party

My friend Sham had planned a surprise birthday party for his wife about a month ago. He didnt even tell his mum or sister in Msia about it as he wasnt sure they could keep mum. Apart from us his invited guests, the other person he told was his eldest daughter!

On the day of the birthday, he went to work as usual and then went home to pick his wife and 2 other girls up and said they were going out to dinner. All along the way, he keep teasing his wife saying that he did not manage to get a present for her and she had to make do with dinner.

We were all told to be there (Hotel Villa in Leinster Gardens) by 630 pm and they would then get there for about 7pm. While we all gathered in the room to await her arrival, her eldest daughter went out to wait for them and she would text us to let us know that they were on the way to the room. We turned the lights out and when she walked in through the door, we all shouted Suprise and sung her a Happy Birthday song. She was so shocked and very, very pleasantly pleased!

This was what we were served.

Made her a birthday cake and a cupcake bouquet as well.

Cupcake Bouquet

2011-10-20T20:34:00.002+01:00

Cupcake Bouquet

In tomorrow's post, I will tell you about a party for a friend. This is a cupcake bouquet that I baked in addtion to the birthday cake.

Cupcakes
Ingredients
125gm Castor sugar
125 butter
125 self raising flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2-3 tbsp milk (optional, just in case mixture is too stiff)

Method:
Preheat oven to 200 deg C
Cream butter and sugar till creamy, then add eggs and finally flour and vanilla essence.
If mixture is too stiff, add a tbsp of milk or 2.
Spoon into cup cake cases and place in oven for around 12 minutes depending on size of cup cake, turning the cake trays halfway through and bake for another 8 - 12 mins.

Vanilla butter cream
125 gm butter
250 gm icing sugar
5 ml vanilla essence
1 tbsp of water as required

Method:
Cream the butter and then slowly add in the icing sugar and vanilla essence and mix till it is light and fluffy.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

2011-10-19T22:23:00.001+01:00

Chocolate Fudge Cake

This is the cake that I made for a friend's birthday party to be held on Friday.

This recipe is from Lindy Smith. I made previous cakes also using her recipe but it was the mud cake recipe. So this time as I was making a cake for a colleague and she wanted a chocolate, I thought I would try this and yes, this is good too and moist and it is heavy enough to be covered with fondant.

Ingredients
225g (8oz) unsalted butter
225g (8oz) good quality chocolate
1 (15ml) tablespoon instant coffee
450g (1lb) caster sugar or soft brown sugar
150ml (5 fl oz) water

4 large eggs
35ml (1.1fl oz) vegetable oil
100ml (3.4 fl oz) sour cream or you can use natural yoghurt or Crème fraiche

125g (4 .5 oz) self raising flour
125g (4 .5 oz) plain flour
50g (2oz) cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (2.5ml) bicarbonate of soda

Method:
1.Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C (315 degrees F, gas mark 2-3)
2.Line the 20cm (8in) deep cake tin with baking parchment
3.Slowly melt the butter, chocolate, coffee, sugar and water in a pan, once melted allow to cool.
4.Add the eggs, oil and sour cream to the chocolate mix and stir well
5.Sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre
6.Pour the chocolate mixture into well and mix until thoroughly combined.
7.Pour the batter into the lined tin and bake for 1 hour 45mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean
8.Leave the cake to cool in the tin

Chee Pao Gai

2011-10-01T23:01:00.005+01:00

Chee Pao Gai (Paper wrapped chicken) - Healthy Version (Halal)

Saw this recipe on the makansutra website. But instead of deep frying, I baked it in the oven. Does not have the burnt bits as the deep fried version but I like the taste of this.

For my method, just follow the recipe till 1, then place in a preheated oven of 200 degs for about 20 mins.

Chee Pao Kai recipe (for four diners)
16 pcs of chicken:
Preferably small chunks like breast meat, chicken wings minus the tips, half a drumstick, or half-sized thighs.
-
Marinade: (one tbsp is about 15 to 18 ml)
3 tbsp Hua tiao wine
3 tbsp Oyster sauce
3 tbsp Sugar
3 tbsp Old ginger juice
3 tbsp Sesame oil
1 tbsp White pepper powder
3 tbsp Light soy sauce
Condiments:
16 two inch long spring onions(scallions)
16 two inch long thin ginger shreds
16 pcs grease paper (7 inch square each)
One beaten raw egg yolk to seal the packs
(note: this recipe yields a heavier marinate flavour, you can reduce the marinate portions by 25% – or one tbsp less, if you wish)
Method:
Put all the ingredients together in a huge bowl and marinate the chicken and rest it in the fridge for 3 hours at least.

1. Marinate the chicken for at least 3 hours, best to do it overnight in the fridge
-
Next, place the paper, in a diamond shape format (with a tip pointing towards you) and set a piece of chicken at the bottom third of the paper and place a strip of ginger and scallion over it. Then wrap – fold bottom up just over the chicken, fold the left and right tip over it and finally fold the top tip and tuck it into the fold created.

2. Ensure you wrap the chee pao kai parcels snuggly so if does not come apart when frying
-
Be sure to dab the top tip with egg yolk so it sticks while frying.
-
Heat up the wok of vegetable oil to about 180-200 degrees. Then gently lower the chicken parcels in with the thicker paper side facing down first. Fry for 4-5 mins and turn the parcels every minute. When done, drain oil, cool and serve.

3. The packs do not score much on the visual scale, but it explodes with flavour when you open it

4. It should be all juicy and fragrantly sweet

1st Birthday cake

2011-09-26T20:22:00.002+01:00

1st Birthday Cake

Another colleague requested me to make a 1 year old birthday cake as she wanted to share it with the other toddlers at her daughter's nursery.

As I had always wanted to make a pull apart cake and never had the chance to do it, I thought, hey, here's my chance to make one now! So here it is, tada!

Pull apart cakes are just cupcakes held together by frosting.

A very simple but yummy vanilla cupcake cake!

Singaporean lunch for friends

2011-09-25T21:00:00.003+01:00

Lunch request

When I invited my SG friends over to lunch and asked them what they would like to have. Their answer was:

Popiah
Soon Kueh
Chwee Kueh
Otak
Kuih Kosui and I added
Glutinous Rice

But in as much as Pat loves his Oriental food, he does not really like our snacks and desserts, so I had to cater for him as well, so I added a Curry Chicken to the lot!

Normally when I invite friends over, it is easier to do casserole dishes as I can prepare them ahead of time, and then just warm them up when it is time to dish them out. But for today's lunch, it was not possible!

My gf made this dessert - melon with sago and coconut milk

Lastly, teh halia tarik!

Oyako Don

2011-09-06T23:00:00.002+01:00

Oyako Don (Halal)

This is another easy one pot Japanese rice dish. Oyako means mother and child, so it is chicken and egg and a donburi dish is where the food is piled onto rice.

Note: For the halal version, please omit the mirin which is sweet rice wine.
Ingredients: (for 2 persons)
2 Chicken thigh - cut into cubes
1/2 small leek - cut on the diagonal
1 onion - sliced
2 dried shitake mushrooms - soaked and sliced
1 tsp dashi
2 tbsp soya sauce )
2 tbsp mirin ) A
1/2 tsp sugar )
2 eggs - beaten

Method:
1. Heat oil, fry onions and leek for a couple of mins till translucent.

2. Add chicken, dried mushrooms and dashi and stir till mixed.

3. Add water from soaked mushroom and A. Simmer for about 10 mins till chicken is cooked.
4. Pour beaten eggs on top of chicken mixture. Cover pan till egg is set.

5. Top chicken mixture over rice.

Spagetti Napolitan

2011-09-04T22:39:00.000+01:00

Spagetti Napolitan

Liana is now trying to learn to cook, so whenever she wants to cook her favourite foods and although the receipes are here, she will still message me to get more detailed instructions.

So far, she has made her 3 favourite Japanese dishes and her bf is saying that they taste good!

So Liana, here is another of your favourite recipes.

According to Wikipedia, Naporitan or Napolitan (ナポリタン) is the name of a pasta dish, which is popular in Japan. The dish consists of spaghetti, tomato ketchup or a tomato-based sauce, onion, button mushrooms, green peppers, sausage, bacon and Tabasco sauce. Naporitan is claimed to be from Yokohama.

It was created by Shigetada Irie (入江茂忠),[1], the general chef of the New Grand Hotel in Yokohama, when he was inspired by one of the military rationing of GHQ, which was spaghetti mixed with tomato ketchup.

The chef named the dish after Naples, Italy (hence "napoli"). However, no dish similar to the Japanese Naporitan is known to originate from Naples. Phonetically, the Japanese language does not contain the western "L" sound. Spellings in the Roman alphabet can vary. The spelling Naporitan is derived from the usual romanization of Japanese, while the spelling Napolitan takes the origin of the name into account#

I learnt to make this dish from a friend who used to own a coffee shop in Hakodate and this was one of the dishes on her menu!

Ingredients
Spaghetti - boiled till al dente
Onions (cut into wedges)
Mushrooms (sliced)
Sausages (cut on the slant)
Prawns
Tomato ketchup
Some white wine or sake
Bell peppers (I left out because I didn't have any)

Method:

1. Heat a little oil in the pan and when hot, add onions and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Then add the sausages, mushrooms and what ever else you intend to add.
2. Add in your cooked spaghetti and tomato ketchup and wine and stir till well mixed.
3. Add in the prawns and season.

Ondeh ondeh

2011-09-03T16:20:00.003+01:00

Ondeh Ondeh

Made this ondeh ondeh some time back and have not posted it and when S asked me for the recipe, thought it was time that I did so now.

Ingredients:
Approx. 200 gm sweet potato
100 gm glutinous rice flour
50 - 60 ml hot water
green colouring (if using)

Filling:
75 gm gula melaka (chopped)
1 tbsp castor sugar

Method:
1. Steam sweet potatoes till soft, then peel skin and mash.
2. Mix in the glutinous rice flour and colouring and add water gradually until you get a fairly stiff dough.
3. Flour hands well and knead dough until smooth.
4. Divide dough into equal small portions.
5. Press with fingers to flatten the balls and fill with gula melaka mixture. Shape it back into a ball.
6. Drop a few at a time into boiling water and when the balls float to the surface, take them out and leave to cool.
7. Lastly, roll in grated coconut.

I left them uncoloured!

Bought this from ebay and it grates coconut nicely, so no need to use dessicated coconut and putting it in the food processor does not work too well either!

Scotland

2011-08-29T17:27:00.000+01:00

Scotland - Short break with Pat and children and grandson

This holiday was a Christmas present from Katrina. When the children were younger, we had 2 time shares in lodges in Scotland. One at Balmoral and one at Craigendarroch - pronounced Cragendarrick. So anyway Katrina got was the one at Cragendarroch which is now run by the Hilton. Had a good time/break there.

See the pole with the red marker on it. When snow falls, this acts as a marker for the sides of the road.

Picture taken from the lodge

Our lodge

This is the church that the Queen and family go to when they are in Scotland

Paris

2011-08-28T22:00:00.000+01:00

Paris with Liana and Mum

This is such a belated post but I thought I had better do it for posterity sake and for my friends.

Mum and Liana came over during the Easter break when Prince William and Kate had their wedding as well, so because of that by just taking 3 days holiday, my holidays turned out to be 11 days!

As Liana was working and did not have too many days to spare, they only had slightly more than a week here, so we took the opportunity to go to Paris as that was what Mum always wanted to go.

We took the Eurostar over to Paris and after weeks of choosing, booked a family room at the Crowne Plaza Republique which was only 3 stops away from Gare du Nord. I was a bit apprehensive as I had never been to Paris (yeah, 10 years in London, and never been there!)but the subway was so easy to take and only cost €1.60 each trip!

Our big room at Crowne Plaza Republique

Booked a bus tour so we could see Paris easier as I did not think Mum could walk so much.

View of the Eiffel Tower from the bus.

Notre Dame

Night view of Eiffel Tower

River cruise on The Seine

Next day - Versailles

Although we bought tickets, we still had to queque about 1 1/2 hours before we got to the entrance.

Heritage Food Trail

2011-08-27T22:42:00.003+01:00

Heritage Food Trail - Apom Bokwa

I am late in submitting this but anyways, here it is.

This is a Peranakan dessert called Apom Bokwa. It is not very well known so I thought it would be good to post this dessert to tell people about it.

I have copied this recipe from Kuali.com - Amy Beh. My mum has her own recipe and I did not have time to get it from her, hence from Kuali. The recipe is ok, although on cooling the apom gets a bit hard, so when I do get the recipe from my mum, I will make it again and know that it will be as soft as I remember it to be.

When I was about to start making it on Saturday, there was a bit of a panic as I knew my mum had bought 2 apom bokwa pans but I searched high and low and could not find them, but luckily remembered where I put them.

Ingredients
(A) - Mix these ingredients together and leave aside to soak for 10 minutes:

500g rice flour
25g glutinous rice
300ml coconut water
(B) - Mix these ingredients, leave aside for 15 minutes. Cook over low flame until it turns gluey to make "Ebu":

50g rice flour
150ml water
(C) - Mix these ingredients and leave aside to froth:

1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp instant yeast
(D):

160ml pati santan
Sauce: (A):

75g brown sugar
50g gula melaka
175ml water
3 pandan leaves
(B) - Mix these ingredients together and allow the rice to expand:

2 tbsp glutinous rice flour
25ml water
(C):

50ml pati santan
1/4 tsp salt
Method
Blend ingredients (a) and (b) together. Mixin 1/2 tsp salt and stir well with a hand whisk. Add in (c) and set aside for 30 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth for it to rise to double its size. Blend in (d) and proof for another 50 minutes. Heat a brass apom mould and grease lightly with corn oil.

Pour in enough batter to fill the mould three-quarters full and cook over medium heat. Cook till bubbles appear. Cover mould with a lid till the top part of the apom is cooked. Touch centre of apom with finger - if it is firm and not sticky, the apom is ready.

To make sauce: Bring (a) to a boil, strain the hot syrup into (b). Stir well and transfer to a saucepan and cook over medium low flame. Add in (c) and stir well till sauce thickens. Pour sauce into a small bowl and serve with apom bokwa.
Note 1: I made half the batter and got around 18 apoms.
Note 2: I added sliced bananas to the sauce as this is what my mum used to do.

I am submitting this post to Heritage Food Trail hosted by Edith of Precious Moments

Thanks Edith for giving us a chance to learn about each other's food cultures.

World Foods Challenge #4 - Nasi Goreng

2011-05-28T22:30:00.000+01:00

World Foods Challeng #4 - Nasi Goreng

Nasi Goreng or fried rice is a popular rice item in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the restaurants in Singapore, it is normally served with 2 or 3 sticks of satay, a fried egg and some prawn crackers!

I was so tempted to make some satay to go with the rice, but time was not on my side and then I remembered that I had some ayam percik marinating in the freezer. So here is my version of Nasi Goreng.

Indonesian Fried Rice 'Nasi Goreng'

Ingredients
4 tablespoons WORLDFOODS INDONESIAN NASI GORENG PASTE
2 eggs
3 tablespoons cooking oil
200g (7.1oz) boneless chicken breast, cut into strips
100g (3.5oz) raw prawns, shelled and deveined
300g (10.7oz) cooked rice, cooked as per pack instructions (preferably pre-cooked and left to cool; ideally the day before)

Cooking Instructions

1. Make an omelette with 2 eggs. Cool and shred it thinly.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a wok or frying pan and add 4 tablespoons of WORLDFOODS INDONESIAN NASI GORENG PASTE and cook for 1 minute until aromatic.
3. Add in chicken and prawns and fry for approximately 5 minutes.
4. Stir in rice and cook for a further 3-5 minutes or until heated through.
5. Garnish with shredded omelette

Serves 2-4

Apologies and WorldFoods Fusion Challenge #1 - #4

2011-05-21T17:58:00.001+01:00

Apologies and WorldFoods Fusion Taste Team Challenge #1 - Pad Thai

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the lack of posting the past month. Firstly April has been a funny kind of month as it was such a short month with Good Friday being end of the month and the Royal Wedding, so I took 3 days hols to make it a long break as my mum and Liana came over (but that will be another post, another day)

As you know, I was contacted by World Foods to be part of their taste team and received a hamper with loads of wonderful stuff!

And our first challenge was to make a Pad Thai.

Ingredients

80g (2.8oz) rice sticks
1 tbsp oil
60g (2.1oz) prawns, shelled and deveined
10g (0.3oz) chives, cut into 2" lengths
100g (3.5oz) bean sprouts
1 bottle WORLDFOODS Thai ‘Pad Thai’ Noodle Sauce
** 20 gms dried radish (from Oriental shops)

Garnishing (optional)
1 egg
2 tbsp chopped unsalted roasted peanuts
Lime wedges
Fresh coriander leaves

Cooking Instruction

1. Place rice sticks in a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 3-5 minutes until just tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Make an omelette with the egg. Cool and shred it thinly.
3. Heat cooking oil in a wok or frying pan and pan-fry prawns until it turns pink.
4. Pour in WORLDFOODS Thai ‘Pad Thai’ Noodle Sauce and bring to a boil.
5. Add in rice sticks and bean sprouts. *Add dried radish (if using)Stir gently to a dry consistency.
6. Just before serving, add in chives and toss gently.
7. Remove onto plates. Garnish with shredded omelette, roasted peanuts and coriander leaves. Serve hot with lime wedges on the side.

This was good. I think it is only meant for 2 but I managed to cook for 3 (as in 2 for dinner and the other for lunch next day!) What was different with my Pai Thai compared to the rest of the group was that I used the dried rice sticks. Also I added in dried radish to the dish, so you get a bit of a different texture as well.

Challenge #2 - Ayam Percik

Ayam Percik

1 bottle WORLDFOODS MALAYSIAN CHILLI COCONUT MARINADE
6 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 tablespoon deep-fried shallots, finely chopped

Cooking Instructions

1. Marinate chicken with WORLDFOODS MALAYSIAN CHILLI COCONUT MARINADE for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat grill.
3. Cook meat on medium heat, turning occasionally until done and slightly charred, about 20-30 minutes depending on size. Optionally, spread on some more marinade.
4. Serve hot with white rice or bread.

Serves 4-6

This was good, not very spicy with a little kick from the chillis. As this was quite a big bottle, I used some of it to stir fry wing beans that I got from China town.

Challenge #3 - Tom Yum Fried Rice

1 tablespoon olive oil
300g (10.7 oz) cooked rice, cooked as per pack instructions
100g frozen mixed vegetables
6 fresh mushrooms (optional), halved
1 thin slice ginger, finely chopped
100g (3.5oz) raw prawns, shelled and deveined
1.5 tbsp WORLDFOODS THAI TOM YUM PASTE

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok. Add ginger and stir fry till fragrant.
2. Stir in the tom yum paste and fry for 1 minute until aromatic. Add mixed vegetables, mushrooms, prawns and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Stir in rice and cook for further 5 minutes until heated through.

I did make the soup as well, but my pictures did not turn out so well, hence no pictures. But maybe because I did not add enough paste, the soup did not taste like how I expected tom yam soup to taste like.

As for the fried rice, this too, could have been a little better if I had added more paste, but overall, it turned out fine.

Buckwheat cookies

2011-04-05T23:10:00.002+01:00

Buckwheat cookies

On the tube back home this evening, I just managed to get a seat and sat down and then saw a pregnant lady. Asked her if she wanted a seat and she said yes. Was about to get up when the guy next to me said he would give her his seat! I thought how gallant of him - well partly so and partly because he got off at the next stop!

Anyways... seeing that my buckwheat pancakes tasted quite good, thought I would go I step further and try making cookies. Googled on the internet and still was not sure, so I decided to go with my shortbread cookies recipe and instead of using plain flour just change to buckwheat flour. Only thing I can advise is if you are going to try out this cookie, after mixing, the mixture might not seem to bind together, but as there is no gluten, there is no worry about overmixing. But mix into 2 batches and you will be ok. The what I did was roll out the dough and cut them out using cookie cutters. The result? Rob and I liked it, but Katrina and Pat were not sure about it.

Buckwheat Banana pancake

2011-04-03T17:34:00.000+01:00

Buckwheat Banana pancake

Firstly, to explain what buckwheat is:

Buckwheat is an ancient seed which was first cultivated in Asia thousands of years ago and is ground and used in a very similar way to the more traditional wheat berries. Buckwheats name is quite confusing as it is nothing at all like our traditional wheat in any way. It is not a grain and it does not contain the same proteins and gluten. Buckwheat is naturally gluten and wheat free with a nutty taste. It is very nutty and pleasant when eaten roasted as a seed and makes a great flour when ground down. It can be used in a similar way to wheat flour for baking and thickening.

I just wanted to make buckwheat pancakes for the longest time, but could not find buckwheat flour anywhere until a couple of weeks ago when I found it at Sainsbury!

Made it for breakfast a couple of mornings ago and it tasted good, so here's the recipe for anyone wanting to have a go.

Note: The first time I made it, I used 1 egg but this morning I made it without egg but with milk. Both taste just as good, so it's up to you which you want to use!

Ingredients:
200 gms buckwheat flour
50 gms sugar
300 mls milk or 1 egg
1 banana mashed

Method:
1. Mash the banana in a bowl. Add the buckwheat flour, milk or egg and sugar. Stir until well mixed and mixture is soft like cake batter.
2. Heat a little oil in a fry pan and when hot, drop big spoonfuls of the batter into the pan. When bubbles appear on the surface, turn over and cook for about a minute, then dish out.

Duck with plum sauce

2011-03-28T22:00:00.003+01:00

Duck with plum sauce

A very easy peasy dinner to prepare!

Ingredients:
2 duck breasts
salt
2 tbsp plum sauce

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 220 deg C.
2. Make diagonal slashes on duck skin so that it renders the fat quicker and also to get a cripsy skin. Salt the skin.
3. Heat a frying pan. No need to add oil as the duck will render its own fat.
4. When pan is hot, sear the duck skin side down and cook for about 3 mins until skin looks brown and crispy. Turn duck onto other side and cook for another 3 mins or so.
5. If you are using an oven proof frying pan, then you can put the whole thing into the oven. If not, remove from fry pan and place onto a baking tray.
6. Cook with skin side down for about 8 mins for pink meat, but if you down like it too pink, cook for another 2 mins.
7. When time is up, remove from oven and fry skin side again for about 1 min to get it cripsy. Remove and let it rest for a min or two while you prepare the sauce.
8. Using the fat rendered from the duck, add the 2 tbsp of plum sauce into the oil and stir till well mixed.
9. Cut the duck into slices and pour sauce.

soon kueh

2011-03-27T21:14:00.003+01:00

Soon Kueh

Had left over bangkwang filling after having made and ate popiah last Sunday. Freezed that and then today decided to make soon kuehs to take to work for the next few days.

Ingredients for skin:

1 cup wheat starch
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 cup boiling water
2 tsp oil

Method:
1. Measure the wheat starch and tapioca start and put into bowl. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and pour boiling water. Use a wooden spoon to mix the water and flours.
2. Cover with a cloth and leave for about 10 mins.
3. After 10 mins, add in 2 tsp of oil into the warm dough and start kneading until mixture comes together.
4. Roll out the dough and cut into rounds.
5. Place filling on dough and press together.
6. Oil a plate and place uncooked soon kueh onto it.
7. Heat a steamer and place soon kueh and steam for about 15 mins.

Before steaming

After steaming

Mun Ye cake

2011-03-12T18:00:00.000Z

Mun Ye cake

Had a catering order for about 20 people for Mun Ye. Made a cake for the sweet little baby. Baby was born on Valentine's day. How nice is that?!

Daddy sent a picture of her in a carrier, hence the model of it.

Gyu maki

2011-03-07T22:00:00.002Z

Gyu maki (Beef roll) (Halal)

Had friends from Singapore who stayed a night at our place before going back to SG. Friday night, prepared niku jyaga, kinpira gobo and chicken karaage for them. No pictures though.

Then on Saturday, my intention was to send them to Windsor, go home buy some beef and they could then have roast beef and yorkshire pudding for dinner before leaving for the airport. But they asked me to hang around with them, which I did but then which left me with not much time to cook my roast beef, so ended up making gyu maki, squid in soya sauce and miso soup with tofu and wakame.

When you want to make a simple tofu and wakame miso soup, soak the wakame in cold water till it expands but do not add to the miso soup until you want to drink it, otherwise it become too soft.

Note: For halal version, please omit the mirin. (sweet rice wine)

Ingredients:

12 pcs of thinly sliced beef
half leek or negi - julienned
green pepper - julienned
carrot - julienned
3 tbsp soy sauce )
3 tbsp mirin ) sauce mixture
1 tbsp sugar )

Method:
1. On piece of sliced beef, lay equal amounts of leeks, peppers and carrots and roll tight.
2. When all the beef have been filled and rolled, heat a saucepan will 1 tbsp oil. When pan is hot, lay the beef in the pan.
3. Fry for a couple of mins till the beef is coloured, then turn it to colour the other side.
4. When beef has been coloured on all sides, add the sauce mixture.
5. Fry till sauce has reduced and caramelizes.
6. Remove and cut the beef into half diagonally and serve hot.

Gyu Maki before frying

Buta Jiru

2011-02-24T23:10:00.002Z

Buta Jiru

Buta means pig an Jiru means soup, so literally pork soup!

Promised my friend Judy that I will show her how to make miso soup. Most of the miso soups that you get in restaurants are just tofu with seaweed, but in home cooking in Japan, almost anything can be thrown into the soup. For example, you can have:
sliced onions with beaten eggs
nameko (a kind of slimy mushrooms) with tofu
clams with tofu
cabbage with sliced pork
mange tout

These are just a few ideas, but what I made to show is called Buta Jiru. And because it was last minute, I only used what I could find in my pantry and freezer.
You can add burdock root or gobo as well.

Buta Jiru

Ingredients: for 4 ppl
Daikon - cut into quarters and sliced thinly
Carrots - ditto
Belly pork - sliced
Konnyaku - blanched in hot water for a few minutes and cut into slices
Dashi - 1 packet
Miso - 1 ladleful (you can use red or white, I used a combination of both)

Method:
1. Bring about 3 cupfuls of water to the boil and then add dashi.
2. Add all the ingredients and simmer till daikon has softened.
3. Lower the fire and you could either slowly stir the miso in the ladle to slowly dissolve it or use a strainer and strain the miso through.

chap go mei dinner

2011-02-17T02:20:00.000Z

Chap Go Mei Dinner

Soaked some buah keluak as I wanted to make it for the dinner with friends, but as these buah keluak have been kept for so long, I was afraid that half might be bad and not useable. So did not make them and kept them for the dinner tonight. But my goodness, only 2 were not good, the rest were as good as black gold. Pun intended!

Initially thought it was just going to be us 2 old foggies again, but then I thought it was the last day of CNY, I invited the children back. So last night cooked the buah keluak and the babi pongteh first as they need time to cook. And digressing a little, I think I mentioned it before in my previous buah keluak post, no need to go through all that trouble to ketok them with a hammer or the lesong but just hand them to Pat who uses a band saw to cut them. Simple! hehe. Anyway, back to dinner....
So tonight, just prepared and cooked the fish tempra and szechuan green beans with minced pork.

Ayam Buah Keluak

Babi Pongteh

Szechuan green beans with minced pork

Fish Tempra

Sambal Lengkong - Fish Floss

2011-02-12T23:38:00.000Z

Sambal Lengkong aka Fish Floss

I have been wanting for the longest time to make this dish. I have been asked by a friend for the recipe and told her that I would try it out myself first before giving it to her.

I looked at so many recipes on the net and the one that appealed to me was Lily's recipe Lily's blog. as it uses the microwave to cook it. I am all for quick and fast food!

This is her recipe below. I modified it slightly.

Ingredients:

2 pieces of fish fillet
300 ml thick coconut milk
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 heaped tablespoon Thai Red Curry Paste - use less if you dont want it too spicy
1/2 tsp roasted belacan powder

Method:

1.Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. When it comes to the boil, put the fish fillets in for a couple of minutes until it is cooked.

2. Flake them when they are warm and they should be flaked very finely.
Mix the red curry paste, belacan, salt and sugar with the coconut milk in a large microwable bowl until well combined.

3. Add in the flaked fish and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir thoroughly. Cook further, until it is almost dry. (I had to microwave it for more than 2 minutes)

4. Turn them onto a baking tray and put in a pre-heated oven at 160 deg. Bake for a couple of minutes but watch carefully as they will catch and burn very quickly. Once the floss is coloured and crispy, put them into a food processor or liquidiser and process them till it gets nice and light and airy. (I added this step)

Below is the final result.

Friends for dinner

2011-02-06T13:19:00.016Z

Lo Hei

I have been baking cakes and cookies non stop since the 2nd week of December. Non stop as in after work, cook dinner and start baking till around 12.
Cupcakes for a school bake sale, Katrina and James's wedding and christening cakes, another christening cake, christmas cakes and tons of pineapple tarts for a CNY carnival, orders and home consumption. Plus kuih bangkit and peanut cookies. Boy, am glad it's over now and I can rest for a bit again. My left wrist is playing up, whether it is due to too much kneading or I sprained it somehow or due to arthiritis. But luckily, will be going to see my consultant for my regular arthiritis check in a couple of weeks, so I can find out what it is. Simple actions like washing hair, washing face, putting on bra - all these hurt my wrist - what can I say - getting old sucks! haha

Anyway back to the topic in hand. Invited some friends to dinner and made the following:

Yu Sheng

Satay Babi

Nonya Chap Chai

Beef braised with Daikon

Deep fried tofu with fish paste

Ngoh Hiang

Itek Sioh

and for dessert - Mango Pudding and a friend made Chocolate Pavlova.

My "Reunion" dinner

2011-02-02T22:00:00.001Z

Our "Reunion" Dinner

I cannot even call it "Reunion" dinner as it is only Pat and me for dinner! I was only going to cook my normal everyday dinner but I thought since everyone in Singapore is having such a good dinner, then perhaps I should do a little bit more then "normal" dinner.

I know steamboat is the easiest dinner to do, but Pat does not like soupy stuff, so decided to cook Sukiyaki beef, soy sauce prawns and spinach fried with shitake mushrooms. It is one dish extra as our everyday dinner normally consists of a meat or fish and a vegetable dish.

We have invited some friends over for dinner on Saturday, so we will have our Lo Hei then.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2011-02-02T14:48:00.003Z

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Hope this Rabbit year will be a blessed and prosperous one for everyone!

aubergine parmigiana

2011-01-19T20:20:00.000Z

Aubergine Parmigiana

Normally, on Wednesdays and Fridays, it will be either Fish or Vegetables or both. I am not a meat person, but I do not think I could be a vegetarian as well!
This is a very easy dish to prepare. This is my own take on the dish.

Ingredients:
2 large aubergines - cut into 1 cm rounds on the diagonal
1 or 2 garlic cloves - minced finely
1 large onion, sliced
button mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 cube beef stock
2 tsp worcester sauce
grated parmesan cheese
grated half and half mozarella and cheddar cheeses
salt and pepper

Method:

1. Lightly oil a baking sheet or 2 and line them with the cut aubergines. Place in preheated oven, 200 deg C for around 20 mins or till soft. You may want to turn them over half way.
2. Whilst the aubergines are in the oven, pour the chopped tomatoes into a saucepan, add the beef cube, worcester sauce. Let it simmer for about 10 mins, then add in the mushrooms (if using) and simmer for another 5 minutes more.
3. Using an ovenproof dish, line the bottom of the dish with the tomato mixture, the a layer of the aubergines, then then the 2 different cheese and continue till the last layer on the top is the cheese layer.
4. Place in oven which has been heated to around 190 deg and bake for about 1/2 hour till the top is golden, crisp and bubbly.
5. Serve hot!

turkey tsukune

2011-01-17T21:00:00.001Z

Turkey Tsukune

It has been raining since last week and it's been dark and dreary everyday. Go to work in the dark, come home in the dark...Bleah!

It was still raining this morning and I was walking across the front lawn to my car and whoops... I did a skidder... hey like a footballer doing a save... fell on my bum. Got up, asked Pat who if my trousers looked ok, no mud or anything like that. No, he said, just looks wet, so thought ok, I can live with that as I could not be asked to go back to change. It was only when I got into work and looked down that I saw a patch of mud on my front right trousers! Yew.... been walking around like that, but the mind is funny like that isn't it, if you don't realise you don't feel conscious...

Anyway, made turkey tsukune last night. This is normally made with chicken mince but I thought I would go one step further and be a bit more healthy.

Ingredients:
450 gm minced turkey or chicken
2 tbsp panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 onion chopped
1 egg (beaten)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp mirin

Sauce Ingredients:
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp mirin
1 tsp sugar
1 cup water
1 tbsp cornflour

Method:
1.Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well and make small meatballs.
2.Heat a pan of water till boiling and drop them in. They are cooked when they float.
3.Mix all the ingredients for the sauce together except for the corn flour. Pour into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add some water to the corn flour, mix well and add to the mixture. Stir well.
4. Add the boiled turkey balls and boil for a few minutes to coat them. They can be served and eaten at this stage.
I go a step further and put some oil in a grill pan. When the oil is hot, add some meatballs and fry till they the sugar caramalise.

Curry rice from scratch

2011-01-09T21:14:00.000Z

Japanese Curry rice from scratch

When I was back in Singapore last year, I had a conversation with D and E and was telling them that I would experiment with making Japanese curry rice from scratch and if I was successful, I would post it and inform them.

Sorry ladies that it has taken so long for me to try it out. But as the saying goes -"better late than never" right?

I tried making it using the roux method and it did work and Pat liked it, so it must be a success then!

Ingredients:
(For roux)
50 gms butter
2 tbsp plain flour
chicken or beef stock
Meat curry powder

1 onion (sliced)
button mushrooms (sliced)
beef or chicken (sliced or cubed - your preference)
Boil beef before hand to tenderize it
Carrot - big cubes
potatoes - big cubes
Fukushinsuke (pickles to go with Japanese curry)

Method:
1. Melt butter in saucepan, add sliced onions.Fry till translucent.
2. Using a wire whisk, stir the butter-flour mixture until it bubbles. This is called a roux.
3.Cook and stir the roux for 1-2 minutes. This gets rid of the raw flour taste and allows the starch granules in the flour to accept the liquid.
4. Add in your desired amount of curry powder and stir until well mixed.
5. Add in your stock and whisk well.
6. Add in your potatoes, carrots and beef and simmer till beef is tender. Lastly if you are using mushrooms, add in the mushrooms.
7. If the curry gets a bit thick, add in a bit more stock or water or even milk.
8. Serve with Japanese rice and fukushinsuke on the side.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T21:42:00.003Z

Happy New Year!

These are from the left over crumbs after making the wedding and christening cakes. I had always wanted to make these and after scouring the net, came up with my own recipe.

Rum Balls

Ingredients:
Left over chocolate cake crumbs
2 tbsp condensed milk
50 gms chopped dark chocolate
2 tbsp double cream
2 tbsp baileys or rum or any liquer that you like
hundreds and thousands
chopped chocolate
cocoa
sugar balls, etc

Method:
1. Microwave the chopped chocolate and double cream for a couple of minutes till the chocolate is melted through. Leave to cool.
2. Mash the cake crumbs with fingers. Add the condensed milk and cooled chocolate. Add in the your choice of liquer and mix well. It will be quite soft at this stage. Set aside and put in fridge for about 1/2 hour to harden.
3. After 1/2 hour take out from fridge and form into balls. Size is completely up to you.
4. After forming into balls, roll into the different sugar toppings.

Result is so moreish, you can't stop at one!

Wishing everyone a blessed and wonderful 2011!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-26T18:31:00.013Z

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sorry for this slightly belated greetings.
Could not get internet connection last night and this morning.

I was tired of turkey after having it for a few Christmases so this year, we are having roast beef with yorkshire pudding and veg. No picture of the whole joint of beef as Pat didnt want it to get cold and started carving as soon as I put it on the table, so here's a picture of it plated with vegs.

Yorkshire pudding straight out from the oven

Baked Alaska for dessert

No dinner that night, but decided to have some cake.

This is a fruit cake that I made for ourselves

This is a carrot cake for Katrina, Rob and James

Katrina, Rob and James

2010-12-20T19:01:00.000Z

This is a very belated post - Katrina and Rob's wedding as well as Baby James's christening!

December 12 dawned bright and sunny. It was a beautiful day. Got up early to set the wedding and Christening cakes at the hotel, got back, dressed and went over to take Katrina to church.

She and Rob orginally only wanted to have James's christening but she thought it would be better for James to have married parents, so they decided to get married at the same time. But she wanted it to be a surprise, so the invites that were sent out were only that of James's christening. So when we arrived the vicar told us that some people approached him asking if there were 2 celebrations there - a christening and a wedding? and he said yes, but they were going to be held together!

Pat and Katrina outside the church

Baby James was so good, he was asleep the whole of wedding mass and even when it was time for him to be baptised, he was still sleeping and when the vicar carried him - I thought " oh no - he is going to shriek when he pours the water over his head!" but bless baby - he had a shock alright, but he opened his eyes and frowned at the vicar - that was it!

Katrina's wedding cake

James's christening cake

Apologies

2010-11-27T17:12:00.000Z

Apologies

It's been more than a month since my last post and I apologise for that. Pat was diagnosed with kidney cancer but has since then had his left kidney removed. We went back to the consultant 2 weeks ago for a post operative consult and the good news is that the pathology report on his lymp node came back clear. So far, he is clear from cancer but will have to go for CT scans to make sure that it has not come back.

He is on the road to recovery but the poor guy is still in pain. It is about 6 weeks since his operation and he is still feeling raw. The consultant prescribed him some pain killers during the last visit but Pat stopped them after taking them for only a day and a half. The pain killers made him feel sick and he said that was not a nice feeling, so he has to bear the pain and hopefully, all these will go away soon.

Dinner request

2010-09-19T13:32:00.000+01:00

Baby sitting and Dinner Request

As we wanted to give the new parents some time off to themselves, we offered to babysit James. They visit quite often on Sundays but this is the first time after 20+ years that I will be looking after a baby for the whole night. I was so worried and had so many what ifs.... but little Mr. was a darling.

His parents dropped him off around 7+ so that's when I fed him, then around 10 gave him his bath -ooo... he loves his bath time, he is ever so quite then, just enjoying the warmth of the water! So anyway, after his bath, gave him his last feed and he only woke up at 4 for his next. Dropped off again straight after that and did not wake up till 8. Hope he will be like this next time we baby sit!

So anyway after his parents picked him up in the morning, I went supermarket shopping as I had invited some friends over for dinner. I offered to make nasi lemak but he was craving chicken rice. He is leaving for Singapore on Wednesday for a holiday and yet he wanted chicken rice. Told him if my chicken rice was not good enough then do not blame me! hehe.

So menu for the night was boiled chicken, har cheong kai (this is more for Pat as he does not like plain chicken), siu yoke and oyster sauced chye sim. Dessert was pavlova and special request of kueh kosui - no pics as you can find them in the archives!

Sorry pictures look terrible as I only remembered to take them halfway during the meal!

Matt & Donna's wedding

2010-09-12T16:30:00.001+01:00

Wedding Cake

Warning! Another long post!
As you have seen from my previous posts, I have made wedding cakes before. 1 tier and 2 tiers and not very big ones at that! So when Matt and Donna decided to get married, I offered to bake them a cake and they wanted 3 tiers and white and burgundy themed. Good! I thought - gives me a chance to practice and widen my portfolio of cakes.

Hmm.. told Pat will not bake a cake for free again (lol) as I never imagined it would be such a difficult task. Boy, do I admire those people who do it for a living, but then again, when it is a job, I suppose it gets easier!

Anyway, a week after I returned from Singapore, I baked the top layer - a 6 inch fruit cake which traditionally in UK, you keep for the christening of your first child. Had to bake the cake earlier as I had to feed it brandy. Step one done!

Then Tuesday of last week, baked the 2nd layer and it did not turn out well. When I tried the recipe some time back, it was ok but perhaps this time, it was bigger - 10 inches - the cake was not high enough. So Wednesday night, baked another one using a different recipe. Yay, it worked.

Thursday, took a day off and baked the bottom layer - 12 inches. Then whilst waiting for it to cool, made the sugarpaste rose and the roses for the middle tier. The 2 bottom tiers are chocolate.

Then after dinner, covered all 3 cakes. Friday night after work, after dinner continued with the deco. Worked till around 0230 and decided I had to stop. I didn't like the deco but as it was so late, my mind was not working as I did not know what to do with it as it just looked a mess. While in bed, did manage to have an idea of how to "cure" the problem, but it meant that I had to re-cover the cake as the burgundy colour would be showing as it had seeped into the frosting.

So next morning, woke up bright and early but feeling like s**t, went downstairs to try and finish the cake. Redesigned the placing of the flowers and this time, I was quite happy with it. So tried as hard and as quick as possible to cover the cake and then had to drive to the cake shop about 40 mins(1 way) away to get separate cake boxes to house the cakes. When I went to the shop 2 weeks ago, the lady said to assemble them and take it to the venue, but I was worried about the weight of the cakes and them toppling over, so went back to get them. While I was there, got some silver sparkle as well to highlight the roses. Left home at 1000 and got back at 1130, not bad driving, eh, considering it was like 60 + miles both ways. hehe.

so, so to cut a very long story a bit shorter, got everything ready by 1300, got dressed and arrived at the venue at 1430. The wedding ceremony was scheduled to begin at 1530, so 1 hour for me to set up the cake. The most time consuming thing on arrival was to add the beads to the cake! But tada, here is my or rather Matt and Donna's wedding cake.

One last picture before I go, just could not resist taking this. Found this in the loo! Don't you think it is so sweet?

My holiday

2010-09-05T14:25:00.002+01:00

My holiday

Apologies for the lack of post and now please sit down, have a cup of tea cos it's going to be a fairly long one as I am going to put 2 1/2 weeks of stories into 1 post!

The main purpose of my going to Singapore at was to attend my cousin's wedding and then have my hols there as well. It was a good thing that Pat did not come with me because on the day I landed, when I called Pat to inform him that I had arrived, he told me that his dad had passed away. We had discussed it already that if that happend, I would still continue my holiday and not turn back but he will try to see if he could delay the funeral. So luckily he could and the funeral was scheduled for 24 August, 2 days after I get back.

I got upgraded on my way out and for the first time in ages, I did manage to catch some sleep. Arrived at SG airport not expecting to see anyone but whilst glancing at the crowd, saw Liana trying to pretend to be inconspicious but failing miserably. haha. What a sweet surprise! The silly girl did not check with the airlines on the arrival of my flight taking for granted that it would be on time, she had to wait 2 hours!

Anyway, got home, got showered and then went out for dinner with Liana and my mum.

2 days later, it's Adeline and Scott's wedding! It was a wonderful wedding. As Scott is an American of Scottish descent, he and his groomsmen wore kilts and as Adeline is half Peranakan, she had her matron of honour and bridesmaids in kebayas. Dinner was at Shangri-La's ballroom and everything was oh so nice!

Mum and Dad walking her down the aisle

I do

With groomsmen and bridesmaids

On stage with both sets of PILs

3 generations

As I was going to be in Singapore during this period, coincidentally, so were a few of my Sec 4 classmates. One was coming in from US for her sister's wedding, yet another from the US back for a holiday and another from Holland also back for holiday. Last minute we had another from UK as well. So we had a mini gathering again this year. Last year, I think we had about 80+ of us. This year we managed to gather about 40+ of us, which I think is also quite good.

All the girls

Sec 4/1

And then another one as some of them could not make it for the 1st gathering, so thanks to Chris, we had it at her place, with some wonderful food to go with it.

2nd SJC gathering

Then I had a 3rd gathering also for some others who could not make the 1st.

3rd mini SJC gathering

I have a lot of wonderful classmates who bother to meet up with me when I am back, some of whom I have been in school with since we were 6! Thank you all!

The rest of my hols were spent just going out with my mum and daughter or catching up with other friends.

Some of the food that I had.

Lunch with Andrew and company at Yanti restaurant

Ramen at Ippodo

Lunch at PS Cafe - thanks to E and D

Dinner at Flo's

We also went to RW at Sentosa and watched Resort World Circus show Voyage de la Vie. We had tickets from Mary - so thank you Mary. For those of you who have not watched this yet, please do. It is a wonderful performance and will keep you captivated throughout the 90 mins.

On the evening before heading out to the airport for my flight back, had dinner with my cousins and their mum. Thank you cousins!

That my friends is my trip in a nutshell and I am back to the real world!

On holiday

2010-08-09T00:48:00.001+01:00

Holiday

Hi folks. Am away for 2 1/2 weeks,so will post when I return!

Dinner guests

2010-07-27T06:30:00.008+01:00

My house guests

Apologies for not posting for some time. Have been busy lately as Pat's father is ill and in hospital, so after work, go home, go to hospital visit him, and then back home and have dinner. So by the time dinner's over, sometimes it is already 9pm and just to lazy/tired to log on. Pat's father is 91 he was hospitalised slightly over a week ago. At first we suspected that he had stroke as he could not speak, but he had the use of his arms and legs, so that could not be. He had a brain scan on Monday and the doctors told us that it was indeed not a stroke and when they did a blood test, we were told he had contracted MRSA and the only place that he could have gotten that was at the nursing home that he was at. So please say a prayer that he will recover soon.

Anyway, back to my dinner guests 2 Saturdays ago.
I only got to "speak" with terri. of Daily Obsessions recently. I normally read a lot of blogs but I am a silent reader. But because I sent Terri an award, and she replied. That's how I started communicating with her. I learnt that she would be in Europe for 2 1/2 months holiday as her daughter was finishing her 6 month exchange student stint, so she took the opportunity to travel around the continent.

So when I heard that Terri would be coming here, I took the opportunity to invite her over to stay the Saturday night for dinner and then take her and daughter to airport the next day. I live about 20 mins from the airport so it is really convenient! I was so happy that she accepted my invitation! I had a really good time with Terri and Yi. Thank you!

Was not sure of what to cook for dinner, but this was my menu for the evening. And as for dessert, made summer pudding. This is a typical English dessert which Pat loves and now Terri says she loves it too. So Terri, recipe is below and I will post step by step pictures shortly.

Satay Babi
Banana/Mango/Prawn packet
Thai Grilled Chicken
Yong Tau Fu
Nonya Chap Chye
and for dessert - Summer Pudding

I did not take pictures of the food as Terri and Yi were doing so! So my pictures are just file pictures (when I did them before)

Satay Babi - file picture

Banana/Mango/Prawn packet - file picture

Summer pudding
Recipe from Saturday Kitchen - James Martin

Ingredients
400g/14oz mixed berries, trimmed
2 tbsps water
50g/2oz caster_sugar
14 thin slices white_bread, crusts removed
oil, for greasing
200g/7oz clotted_cream/thick cream, optional

Preparation method
1. Heat the berries, sugar and water in a saucepan until boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
2. Blend half of the fruits in a blender and strain the purée through a sieve. Reserve the remaining fruit.
3. Stamp out four circles from four slices of the bread to fit the bottom of four small dariole moulds* and set aside. Stamp out four larger circles for the top of the moulds and set aside. Cut the remaining bread into wide strips the same height as the moulds.
4. Lightly oil the inside of each mould and line with cling film.

5. Dip the small bread circles into the purée and place into the moulds. Repeat with the wide strips of bread and use them to line the sides of the mould, making sure that they overlap slightly.
6. Fill the moulds with the reserved fruit and a little of the purée and press the mixture down firmly.

7. Dip the larger circles of bread in the purée and use them to cover the tops of the moulds. Cover with the cling film competely.

8. Chill the puddings in the fridge until ready to serve.
9. To serve, turn the puddings out onto serving plates and serve with a spoonful of clotted cream or double cream if using.

*Note: I used ramekins

Work and pleasure in Nice

2010-07-16T20:01:00.000+01:00

Work and pleasure in Nice, France
June 30 - July 4

Sent by my company for course in Nice. Arrived there Wednesday afternoon and the course was till Friday afternoon. My coursemates were from all over Europe and there were about 20+ of us. Mostly ladies but we had 3 thorns amongst the roses. 2 came from Luxemburg (English but living there yonks) and the other was a Russian. We gave up with the Russian as he did not understand us. They did not join us for dinner on Wednesday evening, so when he was at our table the next morning, I asked him why they arrived late yesterday and his answer was... "Yes" and then I asked another question and his answer again was ... "yes". At this point I thought, ok, no need to ask anymore! Then at lunch and a conversation about him cropped up and apparently someone else asked him at coffee break - "so where did you go for dinner last night?" and you guessed it... his answer was.... "Yes" bwahahaha! Aiyo, I wonder what they are doing there - there were 3 of them at the course. I do not know about the language capabilities of the other 2 ladies as I did not get a chance to speak to them as they did not join us for lunch or dinner. The course cost Euro 1600+, so for 3 persons.... go figure!

Anyway, back to the course. It was good, gave us a chance to understand the whole venture capital business from set up to exit.

The rest of the group was a fun lot and during lunch break of the first day which was an hour and 45 mins, 4 girls decided to go for a swim during the break! Crazy or what?! Anyway, it was so hot in Nice, on Thursday, the temperature showed 34 degs!

Then the course ended on Friday after lunch and Pat was flying in for a short break. But instead of landing at 8+ which was the estimated arrival time, there was a 2 hour delay at Heathrow and he only arrived around 1000 and by the time he got out and we went for dinner was like 11+

The next day we went for a tour of the Provence countryside. I had booked a tour but it was only the 2 of us, so it was a nice leisurely one.

The on Sunday, I tried to book a late check out but because it's summer time, all their rooms were booked, so we were kicked out at 1230. As we had a late breakfast, we took a walk around Nice town, then went to the park and slept in the shade, went for lunch and then went park to our spot under the trees again till 5. While walking back to the hotel to collect our luggage, there was a band playing the "Can can song", so I was trying to do the cancan and whilst doing so, stepped on uneven ground and twisted my ankle! argh! hehe, don't worry, I'm ok now!

Perfume factory - antique bottles

Chapel

Market - cannot really see as there is nothing to compare to, but the garlic and the pepper were huge!

Medieval village

Waterfall

Sweet factory

James Thomas

2010-06-20T20:00:00.001+01:00

Announcing the arrival of….

This is a back dated post - apologies for not posting earlier!

Dear Readers, I am officially a grandma, albeit a step grandma – haha. My step daughter K, gave birth to little James Thomas on Monday night (14 June) at 11.08 pm. Little JT is 3 weeks early. His original due date was supposed to be 4 July! He is actually a miracle baby as she has cystic ovaries and thought she would not be able to conceive naturally.

She is a dentist and just before she knew she was pregnant, she was not feeling well. So her patients asked her if she was pregnant and she laughed and said that it was not possible. But since a couple of her patients mentioned it, she decided to get a test kit to see if she was really pregnant and lo and behold, she was. But as she did not want to tempt fate, she did not tell anyone until she was in her third month. And as they say, the rest is history…..

Pat will be boring Grand – da, but I didn’t want to be called Nana or Grandma, so I have decided that he will call me Oma – which is the German term. It think it’s short and sweet and easy to pronounce.

For a Caucasian baby, don’t you think he has quite a full head of hair?

James Thomas with mum

with mum

with parents

With grandparents

Flowers

2010-06-19T21:42:00.009+01:00

Flowers in my garden

Look at the 2nd picture below and you can see why it's nick named snap dragon. If you press on the flower, it snaps!
Snap dragon

Snap dragon 1

Peony

Dog rose

Iris

Cystis

These are actually winter flowers and yet they are blooming now. I think they must be bit confused! hehe. And the plants you see in the background are chilli plants. They have tiny buds, so fingers crossed, if I get any chillies, will take some pictures.

Cyclmen

Pink poppy

Food pictures

2010-06-18T21:10:00.000+01:00

Food pictures

You know sometimes when the mood just isn't there? That's me now. My mind's a blank and so I thought I'd just post some of the food that I have cooked during the last few weeks.

Yong Tau Fu

Turkey Kitsune

Liver and spring onions

Steamed seabass

Nasi Lemak

Oyako Don

Stir fried chicken livers

Chicken with Szechuan veg (preserved veg)

Angled loofah/Ketola/Kak kueh

Angled loofah omelette

Sorry!

2010-06-17T07:00:00.000+01:00

Sorry!

Just want to say sorry to everyone who has been visiting and finding no new posts here. As I told Mamafami when she asked me why no new posts?.... I said... No 1 - I am lazy... No 2... my laptop charger died and was waiting for new one to arrive.

It has arrived, so please be patient for a few more days. I will try to post on Sat.

Thank you very much for your patience!

Patio is clean

2010-05-22T19:32:00.000+01:00

Patio is clean

2 weeks ago, got Pat to take the pressure washer out as I wanted to get our garden furniture washed. He managed to wash 2 chairs and then the hose gun broke. So work stopped. Pat had to go order new "gun" and then when it arrived - weather was crap and raining the whole time, so could not manage to get out to the garden. Finally, yesterday sun was shining, so lugged the pressure washer out again and hey presto, we are ready for summer! - if it ever comes! I am so proud of myself! hehe

Patio before cleaning with moss and weeds

After washing

Steps before cleaning

Steps after

Flowers

2010-05-16T21:13:00.001+01:00

Flowers

Spring flowers! Let the flowers speak for themselves.
Feathered tulip

Another view of the feathered tulip

Regular tulip

Rosemary bush

Wisteria plant

Scones

2010-05-15T23:12:00.000+01:00

Scones

Haven't had scones in some time, so made them for tea time.

Cream melted because the scones were still hot from the oven when I slathered the scones with it!

2010-05-09T15:44:00.001+01:00

This is a very belated post and I would like to thank E of Precious Moments for this award. I started blogging in July 2008... geez going to be 2 years soon... anyway, to continue, mainly as a sort of journal so my family and friends in Singapore and other parts of the world would know what was happening in my life besides my cooking and baking.

People who know me will be surprised when I say I am a rather shy person.. in fact no one will believe me!I say this because although I read a lot of blogs, I do not post or leave comments in them, hence I am not really known in the blogging world.

Hence, when I received this award from E who I have known for a few years already, I was happy but in a quandry as I do not have 12 bloggers to pass to.

The rule of this award is as follows:

(1) thank the person who passed you the award.
(2) paste the award to your blog.
(3) pass it to another 12 bloggers or more if you prefer.
(4) write 10 things about yourself.

This is my list of bloggers who I log on to almost daily:
1. audreycooks.
2. beachloverskitchen.
3. ching.
4. deb.
5. hkchoo.
6. lydia.
7. lily.
8. mamafami.
9. mykitchensnippets.
10.terri.
11.obachan.
12.zu.

About myself:

1. A Singaporean who got married at 21 and lived in Japan for 4 years from 82 to 86.

2. 10 years ago remarried to a Englishman and now residing in London.

3. My daughter, who will be 24 this year was with me until last year when my brother passed away, so she went back to Singapore to accompany her grandmother. I miss her very much but I suppose my mum comes first.

4. Used to own a cafe in Singapore for a short period of time called "Tina's Peranakan Delights" in Orchard Road yonks ago. Gave up the shop because I met my present husband and got married.

5. Love experimenting with food.

6. Love baking too and last year did a 5 day cake decorating course, so am into sugarcraft now. Bake almost every weekend for hubby's tea.

7. Love travelling and visiting new places.

8. Am a terrible book worm and when I was younger, used to read non stop. Right now am reading 2 books on the go, one for the tube and one before going to bed.

9. Like I said above, am a shy person until I get to know someone.

10.Going back to Singapore once a year to visit mum, daughter, relatives and friends and to enjoy my much loved hawker food!

Pork Trotters in Vinegar

2010-05-08T21:13:00.001+01:00

Pork Trotters in Vinegar

I have always loved pork trotters cooked in vinegar, so since I was at the chinese supermaket, I bought myself a nice trotter!

Ingredients:
1 or 2 port trotters
2 inch ginger - sliced
Sweet vinegar - 1/2 bottle
sesame oil

Method:
1. Heat water in saucepan and cook/blanch pork trotters for 5 mins. Remove.
2. Heat sesame oil in saucepan, add ginger slices and fry for 2 mins. Add pork trotters and sweet vinegar and water to cover the trotters. Bring to boil then lower fire to small and simmer for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours or till trotters are tender.

Note: I used a mixture of sweet and normal black vinegar and 1 tbsp of brown sugar.

Butter biscuits

2010-05-02T15:30:00.001+01:00

Butter Biscuits

I was planning to make shortbread biscuits as I thought I had not made them in a long time. So measured my ingredients and then put it in the oven to bake.

As I was clearing up, I saw that I had left the rice flour still on the weighing scale! Oops! Shucks... what's going to happen to my bikkies? After baking time was up, took them out from the oven, patiently waited for them to cool and tried them. Wow... they actually tasted good! Very caramelly! Boy, was I so relieved!
The recipe can be found under "Shortbread Biscuits" and the apart from not using the rice flour the only change I made was to separate the dough into 2 parts and roll each part into a sausage shape and cover with cling film and put in the fridge for about 15 - 30 mins for it to firm up. When you are ready to bake the biscuits, cut them into thin slices and flatten them on the baking sheet and bake for about 10 mins.

German Chocolate cake

2010-05-01T16:23:00.001+01:00

German Chocolate cake

Received a request to bake a 3 tier chocolate wedding cake for September. All of the wedding cakes that I have made so far were either fruit or carrot cake. So I had to try a bake a cake that would be nice and chocolately and yet strong enough to hold the fondant and tiers. Tried out the recipe from Rose B's book and it turned out fantastic. It does not use butter but oil so it does not become dense even it is refridgerated. So the children and Pat became my guinea pigs but I think it went down a treat!

Sticky Ginger Cake

2010-04-25T16:40:00.001+01:00

Ginger cake

Pat likes cakes with frosting. Most Sundays I bake a cake so he can have them for tea when he gets back from work. He loves the Coffee Walnut cake and can have them every week. Nah... have to do something different otherwise it would be so boring right?

So this week, baked this Ginger cake and it is so nice with bits of chopped stem ginger when you bite into the cake.

Yum....if I may say so myself!

Unexpected Dinner guests

2010-04-17T23:30:00.000+01:00

Unexpected Dinner Guests

We went to Katrina's house to have a look at Rob's car as she said there was something wrong with it and wanted Pat to have a look at it. It was a beautful day and I sat in the sunshine while Pat had a look at the car. Then Katrina asked Rob what they were going to do for dinner, so on impulse I invited them to our place for dinner. It was a good thing I went to the supermarket that morning, so I had a packet of chicken and a pack of lamb neck fillet.

As for the sui mai, had already pre made the filling a couple of nights ago as I was craving for it!

So this is what I made. Got home at 6 and got dinner at the table by 7.45. Not bad, right?

Oyster sauce grilled chicken

mixed fried veg

Lamb and spinach curry

Sui Mai

April Fool's Day

2010-04-01T07:00:00.000+01:00

April Fool's Day

Sigh. Why sigh? Because every year for as long as I can remember, my late brother Francis will call me and my mother and when my daughter was big enough to understand, her as well, to try and play a joke on us. Most of the time, my mum would be taken in as she would forget that it's April 1 and the laughs that we will get when he or she repeats the joke to us. As for me, most of the time, I will be waiting for his call and don't get caught!

Francis was good that way, remembering birthdays, anniversaries and even April Fool's day! It's gone just past 6 months that he has left us and it's times like this that it hurts most.

Back to the present... Mother Nature did a u-turn yesterday, it was back to winter - (read snow)for places up north and for us in London, daytime temperature was less than 10 degs.
It's sunny now but hope it's not an April Fool joke that Mother Nature is playing on us.

We will be having a loooong weekend as we get Easter Monday off as well.

Birthday lunch

2010-03-28T22:27:00.004+01:00

Pat's Birthday

Pat's birthday was yesterday but we only went out for an Indian in the evening as I had arranged for the children to come back and celebrate it today.

I made a Roast beef dinner with all the trimmings including Yorkshire pudding. Started cooking at 1030 for a 1300 lunch and I was so happy that it was right on time!

Also baked a Coffee Walnut cake for Pat as this is his favourite.

Spring Flowers

2010-03-20T19:34:00.000Z

Spring Flowers

These have been out for quite a while but I haven't had the time to upload them. The first one is crocus

These are snow drops but with a double row petal instead of the normal single row petal. Aren't they pretty?

Cranberry Oat Cookie

2010-03-15T21:41:00.004Z

Cranberry wholemeal cookies with oats and white chocolate

Ingredients:
150g plain flour (I used wholemeal flour)
120g brown sugar
150g butter
50g instant oats
100g dried cranberries
25g ground almonds (I ran out, so omitted this)
50 g white chocolate chips
2 eggs yolks
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I omitted this as I used salted butter)
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
Preheat oven at 190 degrees C. Sieve together the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the ground almonds, brown sugar, oats, cranberries and white chocolate chip.

Melt butter in the microwave or a small pan over low fire. Stir the butter into the dry ingredients together with the egg yolks. Mix well, then using your hands, form balls of dough, pressing down on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet. Leave space in between the cookies for them to spread.

Depending on how big your cookies are, bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until sufficiently browned. Remove and cool on wire rack for them to harden.

Macarons

2010-03-13T21:17:00.000Z

Macarons revisited

Since Shirley told me that she was unsuccessful with her macarons using the recipe I posted, I thought I had better try it again to make sure it was ok. This time took step by step pictures.

Beat eggs till semi stiff

Add almond meal and colouring (if using)

Using a plastic bag, pipe 1 1/2 - 2 inch rounds

This time, I whipped some creamed and added lemon curd to make the filling.

Blueberry cake

2010-03-12T21:07:00.002Z

Blueberry Cake

This is such a simple cake to make. Literally almost beating everything together instead of the usual butter and sugar first, etc, etc!
And.... it is very soft and moist with the addition of the sour cream.

Blueberry Soured cream cake with cheesecake frosting

Ingredients:
175 gm butter (softened)
175 gm caster sugar
3 eggs
225 gms self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
vanilla extract
150 ml carton soured cream
2 punnets blueberries

For the cheesecake frosting:
200gm tub Philadelphia soft cheese
100 gm icing sugar

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to fan 160 deg C. Butter and line the base of a 22cm round loose bottomed cake tin with non-stick baking paper.*
2. Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla in a bowl. Beat well with an electrical mixer for 1-2 minutes until lighter in colour. Beat in 4 tbsp soured cream and stir in half of the blueberries with a large spoon.
3. Tip the cake mixture into the tin and spread level. Bake for 50 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the tin and peel off the lining. Cool on a wire rack.
4. For the frosting, beat together the soft cheese, icing sugar and remaining soured cream in a mixing bowl until smooth. Spread over the whole cake (the frosting will melt if the cake is still warm) and scatter with the remaining blueberries.

*Note: As I used non stick baking pan, I omitted this.

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

2010-03-07T18:02:00.000Z

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

This is the other cheesecake that I baked for Katrina and she loved it.

Cotton soft Japanese cheesecake

Ingredients:
140g fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
60g cake flour
20g corn flour
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

3. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and fold well. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper). Wrap the base of your cake tin with aluminium foil if you are using a springform tin, to prevent seepage.

4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hour 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degree celsius.

5. Remove tin from waterbath and leave to cool in oven with door ajar for about 1 hour.

my window sill

2010-03-06T15:00:00.000Z

My window sill

I call my kitchen window sill my magic window sill because my flowers and plants love it there and they all trive there!

The orchids on the left have been in bloom since last year late summer (I think) and the other orchid just started blooming. The daffodils were given to me by Kris. Thanks Kris. The plant on the extreme right is a curry leaf plant which my mum brought over ages ago, I thought it had died last year, then it decided that it wanted a second lease of life, so it started leafing again, though not as bushy as I want it to. So the other day, I sacrificed quite a few of its branches and I hope it will branch out a bit more.

The orchid on the left were given to me by Siat and so hopefully they will go on for a long time more. The little plant next to the orchids is a kaffir lime leaf plant. It is growing slowly but surely! And the plant on the right - that is a Christmas cactus which normally blooms around November December - hence it's name. It did bloom then and this is it's second blooming.

2010 CNY dinner

2010-02-21T23:55:00.006Z

2010 CNY Dinner

As K and her husband could not make dinner on 13 February (Reunion Dinner), we decided on the following week, which was yesterday.

Planned to cook 10 dishes and 3 desserts, and for this had all my shopping done a couple of days beforehand. Saturday morning itself, started at around 10 making my desserts first so that they could harden/cool in the fridge. Made my chocolate torte, finished that and then was starting on my mango pudding when I realised I did not have enough gelatine and also needed a pack of mango juice. Yikes, so had to drive to the supermarket to get them, but eeks, no mango juice. Was debating whether to go to another supermarket to get it, but decided against it as had so many other things to do and I was so afraid of running out of time.

By the time I got back, it was around 1+, so starting making my mango pudding. That done, my stomach was calling out to me, so had to take a break to have instant noodles. Turned to TV on just to see what was happening and "East Enders Revealed" was on - (this btw is an English soap that has been going on for a long, long time) -so anyways watched it for a bit but with a heavy heart, had to turn the TV off, otherwise - no dinner for my guests!!

Never made lychee sorbet before, but this was one dessert that I have always wanted to make and boy was it ever so easy. Opened a can of lychees, threw the fruit into a food processor and whizzed it. Then put the whizzed fruit and a pack of lychee juice into an icecream maker and 1/2 hour later - voila - sorbet. Hehe, didnt realise making sorbet was so easy!And yet I didnt take a picture of it! Duh!

The rest of the afternoon flew by and I am pleased to say that I managed to finish everything by about 8 - so just in time for dinner!

Recipes to follow shortly!

Our guests

Braised Beef with Daikon

Roasted Chicken Wings

Scallops with Asparagus

Steamed Monkfish

Steamed Fish Paste Roll

Siew Yoke

Gado2

Prawn, Mango and Banana Packet

The picture does not do this dish justice. I use wafer paper and in it I have prawns, sliced mango and banana. To top it, I add a litle sauce of condensed milk and mayo. Yumm!
Chicken Ngoh Hiang

I decided to make Chicken Ngor Hiang as one of my guests prefers chicken and I have been wanted to try this dish out for a long time. If you use chicken thigh, it is actually quite moist and tasty. I was worried it would turn out dry but not so!
Yee Sang

Chocolate Torte

Mango Pudding

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2010-02-14T00:01:00.002Z

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Wishing all my friends and readers a very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year. May this year bring you Peace, Happiness and Good Health! Oh and I almost forgot - Happy Valentine's Day too!

Finally

2010-02-13T18:14:00.005Z

Finally

Whew! Managed to nearly complete my tasks for today. Did 5 loads of washing today. Made sugee biscuits, acar and also a strawberry shortcake.

Wanted to do the strawberry shortcake for valentine's day tomorrow but since Katrina's future parents-in-law were coming to tea, thought I'd make it today. This is the first time we are meeting them, so...

Last 2 things left to do. Bake one more batch of pineapple tarts - jam already done this morning, so just have to make the dough and then wipe down the glass of the extractor fan and I think I'm done!

Chinese New Year Cookies

2010-02-12T21:40:00.003Z

Chinese New Year Cookies

When I went back to SG in Sept, chanced across a heart shaped pineapple tart mould in NTUC and got myself one. So this year, instead of the normal round one, made a heart shaped one. Trouble is I love pineapple tarts and also, because I have given some away to friends and colleagues, have to bake my third batch this Saturday again because it has run out.

Also made peanut cookies - Pat prefers these to pineapple tarts.
Recipe can be found in the archives.

The other cookies that I made as well was Kuih Bangkit. Trouble with Kueh Bangkit is that I have never got it looking right. The taste was good but I always ended up with the dough spreading out after baking. that is until now. I finally worked out not to add so much coconut milk to it and boy, was I ever so pleased. I got proper looking kuih bangkits!

After seeing a fellow blogger talk about Kueh Belanda or Love Letters (they call it Kueh Kapit in Malaysia, I decided to try it out as well. I have 2 of these molds as my mum brought it for me yonks ago but I had never trie it. So tried that and not that great, but I think good enough for a first time and it tastes good as well!

New York Cheese cake

2010-01-23T17:02:00.002Z

New York Cheese cake

Katrina said that I hadn't made Cheese cake in a long time and asked her which it was - said she wasn't sure, so I made this first and if it is not the right one, then will make the Japanese cheese cake at another time.

Got this recipe from Lucy's blog.Aunty Yochana.

New York Sweet Crust:

125 gm. plain flour
50 gm. butter
1/4 tsp. baking powder
50 gm. sugar
1 no. small egg

Ingredients for filling:

600 gm. Cream cheese - room temperature
120 gm. Sugar
30 gm. plain flour
4 nos. medium size eggs
125 gm. sour cream
1 Tbsp. Lemon zest
1 tsp. Vanilla essence

apricot gel: 2 Tbsp. apricot jam + 80 to 100 gm. water + 1/2 tsp. agar agar powder + 1/2 tsp. instant jelly

Method:

(1) For crust: cream butter and sugar till creamy. Add in egg a little at a time till evenly mixed. Add in flour and baking powder and mix into a dough. Rest for about 20 mins. Then roll out the dough and lay into a 9" springform tin. Bake at 175C for about 15 mins. then remove from oven and let it cool.

(2) Beat cream cheese with sugar till creamy. Add in lemon zest and vanilla essence.
(3) Add eggs, 1 at a time until finished.
(4) Add in plain flour and then pour in the sour cream and mix.
(5) Pour the cream cheese filling into the baked crust and steam bake for about 1 hour 10 mins. or until center is almost set.
(6) Leave in the oven for about 30 mins (oven switched off) and then remove from oven or you can leave it inside till cooled.
(7) Chill in the fridge and glaze the cheese cake with apricot gel.
(8) Serve chilled.

I tried the crust but next time I think I will use digestive biscuits and butter. And for the topping, I used sour cream.

Katrina came and tried and said "it's nice but not this", so guess I will have to do the Japanese cheesecake another day!

Terong Belado

2010-01-20T22:04:00.000Z

Terong Belado (Aubergines in Chilli paste)

This is an Indonesian dish and Pat commented that I have not done this in quite a while so here we go. This is a rather easy dish to do.

Ingredients:(for 2 ppl)

1 big fat aubergine
1 onion (quartered) )
1 clove garlic ) grind to a paste
1 tomoto (quartered) )
1 or 2 red chilles )
1/2 teaspoon belachan )
salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Method:

1. Heat oven to 200 deg C.
2. Slice aubergines lengthwise into 2. Score fleshy bit and dab with oil and roast/grill for 1/2 hour or until aubergine is soft. (Take care not to burn it)
3. While aubergines are roasting, grind the rest of the ingredients to a paste.
4. Heat oil in pan and fry the paste ingredients for about 5 mins. Remove and leave aside.
5. When aubergines are tender, "butter" the aubergines with the cooked chilli paste and put back into oven for another 5 - 10 mins.

Sambal chilli and hae bee hiam

2010-01-18T12:55:00.002Z

Sambal chilli and hae bee hiam (Dried prawn sambal

Everytime I go back to Singapore, I will get my mu to buy me a few packets of this chilli which I will then freeze and when I run out of my sambal chilli, I will make.

Not very difficult to do and you can use this chilli for all sorts of things, eg, nasi lemak chilli, mee siam chilli - you get my drift!

Ingredients:
1 packet of chilli paste
a couple of shallots

Method:
1. Slice shallots finely. Heat oil in pan and when hot fry shallots. Sweat the shallots but do not let it brown. Then add the chilli paste and slowly fry till it changes colour. Add sugar to taste. Shiokadooo!

Chilli paste

Sambal

The other thing that I like to make and store (although it does not last me a week)is my ration of hae bee hiam or in English - dried prawn sambal.

Sambal Hey Bee

Ingredients:
1 cup hey bee (dried prawns) – soaked and finely ground
6 – 8 fresh chillies )
10 small onions ) pound together
a knob of blachan (optional) )
salt to taste
sugar to taste

Method:
1. Heat a tbsp of oil in a fry pan and fry the pounded ingredients for 2 minutes.
2. Add the dried prawns and continue frying till quite dry.
3. Add a little salt and sugar to taste.

Kueh Kosui

2010-01-17T15:00:00.001Z

Kueh Kosui

After so many years of not making kueh kosui, my mum suddenly forgot the measurements for it and asked me to give it to her. I will disgress a bit from this post to tell you about my mum. (Be prepared for long post!)
Mum will be 81 this year but she is still strong and unlike other old ladies, she still has friends asking her to make mee siam or buah keluak or kuehs for parties or whatever. Like last year when I was back in December. Our church had a Christmas Treat - it's a yearly affair and there are food stalls, etc and it's all in the name of charity. So, my mum offered or they asked her to make mee siam to sell for this Fun fair. And it was a good thing that I was there cos there was no one to help her this time as a friend who normally does went for retreat!
So left the house at 6.30am with 4 big bags and a big sauce pan. Can you imagine how she was going to do it if I wasn't there?! So anyway caught a taxi and went to Church. Arrived at Church and whilst retriving one of the many bags, a trolley bag fell over and the kueh sarlat that she made to sell as well which wasn't tightly closed, went flying onto the road. Aiyo, so sayang but what to do. But what made me even more incensed was that this lady who saw this just said "Aiyo sister, sayang hor that it fell out" and went on her way. Not even stopping to help us to carry the bags! Call yourself a Catholic and going to Church! Hmm.... sorry I know I shouldn't judge but ..... Anyway, to continue, set up things, etc and even before the last Mass was over we had finished selling. We had a lady there to help us man the stall but she had to leave at 1200. And at 1200 another lady came to help out but we told her that we had finished and my mum told her that she made (I can't remember the quantity now) so much and the lady said "oh next year, then you can make more!" OOh, ooh.. wrong thing to say, I got so pissed off with her comment and said, "And ya, who is going to help her carry the stuff from her house to Church?" And the lady said, "Oh if you tell us, we will" - oh yes, like someone will come to her place at 0630 in the morning to help her carry the stuff. PULEASE!!!! Anyway luckily my mum told me that she won't be doing it again next year as it was too troublesome.

Sorry for this long blab.... you guys still here? Anyway, back to Kueh Kosui - she has like monthly or weekly church meetings and she will make snacks to bring, so she wanted to make kueh kosui.

This is a recipe from Corner Cafe.but I have modified it slightly. Thanks SeaDragon!

[Ingredients]
A:
50g tapioca starch
30g rice flour
125ml water
1/4 teaspoon alkaline water (lye water)
1/8 teaspoon salt
B:
75g palm sugar (gula melaka), roughly chopped
45g white granulated sugar
170ml water
3 pandan leaves, torn 3-4 times along leaf veins & knotted together
C:
100g freshly grated coconut, or frozen grated coconut
1/4 teaspoon salt
http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/
[Preparation]
1. Prepare a 15cm round steaming tray or baking pan and grease lightly with cooking oil.
2. To prepare (C), mix together grated coconut and salt. Steam over high heat for about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. To prepare (A), put tapioca starch and rice flour in a mixing bowl. Slowly add water, stirring at the same time to mix well. Stir in salt and alkaline water *. Set aside.
4. To prepare (B), put all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a slow boil over moderate heat, stirring continuously to dissolve the sugars, about 5 minutes.
5. Pour hot sugar syrup slowly into the flour mixture. Stirring continuously to mix evenly into a thin batter. Strain to remove pandan leaves.
6. Place prepared pan into the steamer and steam until hot.
7. Pour the batter into the hot pan in the steamer and stir until the bottom of the batter starts to set, about 2-3 minutes. Stop stirring and cover the steamer. Steam over high heat for about 15-20 minutes, or until set*.

*
Notes:
1. As I couldn't find any alkaline water, I omitted this and it turned out ok.
2. Before pouring the batter into the hot pan in the steamer, I put it into a microwavable bowl and nuked it for about a minute until it was very sticky then poured it into a pan and steamed it for about 10 mins.

Popiah Dinner

2010-01-16T21:59:00.002Z

Popiah Dinner!

As Kris was coming down from Wales, we invited Siat as well so we could play a 3 kaki mahjong game. Kris was going to buy a roast duck from Bayswater to supplement our dinner, but as Circle line was not operating she came directly to my place instead. So I offered to make popiah. Of course I did not have bangkwang and and instead of using celeriac as I normally do, thought I would try something different and use kohlrabi to see what the difference in taste would be like. Went to Tesco, walked round the vegetable department and couldn't find it. Asked the helpers there but unfortunately, they were no help as they didnt know what a kohlrabi is and made it seem like my pronunciation was so bad that they did not understand me. Geesh!Hopefully I will be able to find kohlrabi in another supermarket another day and try it and I will let you know which is better! Anyway, am showing pictures of celeriac and kohlrabi here.

Celeriac

Kohlrabi

In addition to popiah, I made Tau Yew Bak as well and remembered that I had some Bak Kwa left over from? Anyway defrosted that and grilled it! Yum!

After dinner, played mahjong till 0230. Hurray!

Meat Ball Spaghetti

2010-01-11T22:23:00.001Z

Meatball Spaghetti

Another easy weekday meal which can be prepared in a hurry!

Have been cooking quite a few Chinese dishes lately and suddenly have this craving for spaghetti.

Ingredients:
(For meat balls)
6 Pork Sausages - I used cumberland sausages (remove from casing)
1 tablespoon panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
Salt and pepper

(For sauce)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 onion (chopped)
1 carrot (chopped)
2 celery sticks (chopped)
1 clove garlic (minced finely)
1 beef cube
1/2 cup red wine or white wine (your preference)
dash of worcester sauce

Method:
1. Mix sausage meat with panko and seasoning and stir well. Make into little or big balls as you like.
2. Heat oil in pan until hot. Add onions, carrot, celery and garlic and let it sweat for about 5 mins.
3. Add in chopped tomatoes, red/white wine, beef cube and drop in your sausage balls and let it simmer for about 15 mins. Remember smaller sized balls take shorter time to cook.
4. After about 15 mins, add dash of worcester sauce and add seasoning to taste.

Snow

2010-01-10T18:48:00.007Z

Winter Wonderland?

Snow last year was early. Since I have been here, it normally snows after Christmas but last year, it snowed on 21 Dec. That was the day I was due to arrive back from Singapore. Boy was I worried because normally when I go to Singapore even in winter, I do not take a coat with me as it is too bulky and I always think that Pat will pick me up, so that will not be a problem. But on the morning (0600) that I was dur to arrive, the forecast was for -5 deg. Yikes! I only had my cardigan with me but with 2 pcs of T-shirts underneath, I managed to brave the cold and got picked up without being frozen!

Then the same day because it was snowing so badly in the daytime, Pat could not leave his office as the roads were so jam packed. He finally got home around midnight. When he arrived home the next day he told me when he drove to work in the morning, there were cars literally abandoned on the roads. Because it was so icy and because of the jams the night before, people just left the cars and walked home!

As for me, because I have a rear drive car,it will not take me up the slope outside our house, so I was snowed in for 3 days. I was panicking as I had not done my Christmas food shopping yet. Pat was working and could not take me until 23 evening. Whew!

These are the pictures that I took yesterday but the first one was taken last year in Feb when Liana was still here and when we built the snowman together.

Taken from doorway

Steamed Pomfret

2010-01-04T22:40:00.000Z

Weekday dinner

Went to Loon Fung which is a Chinese supermarket about 15 miles away. Go there once every 2 - 3 weeks to stock up.

Pomfret was one of the things I bought so decided to have easy steamed pomfret.

Also bought some kangkong and as I have my stash of ready made rempah, so add oil to the hot pa, add the rempah and the add the kangkong and it's done!

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T23:30:00.004Z

Happy New Year 2010 to my dear friends and readers

We had a very quiet New Year eve, watched the fireworks on TV as did not fancy going out in the cold watch 10 mins of fireworks then jostling with the crowds to go back on the tube. No the 2 oldies preferred the warmth of our home!

We invited M and K over for dinner as a sort of thank you for feeding Pat while I was away! Menu for the night was: Itek Sioh, Lor Ark (Stewed Duck) Satay Babi, Otak, French beans with minced pork and Prawn, Mango and Banana parcels.The Prawn, Mango and Banana was something new that I have not tried before but everyone loved it!

The duck was originally meant for Christmas dinner but as we had the children back, had turkey instead, hence the duck for tonight's dinner. And I though duck 1 way was boring, so cut it into 2 to make 2 separate dishes!

Satay Babi

Prawn, Mango and Banana parcels

French Bean with Minced Pork

Lor Ark (Stewed Duck)

Otak

Itek Sioh

Ayam/Itek Sioh (Chicken/Duck in thick Tamarind Juice)

Ingredients:
(A)
3 tbsp coriander seeds, roasted and ground finely
6 tbsp sugar
salt/pepper to taste
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
15 shallots – grounded

1 whole chicken or duck – cut into pieces
fistful of tamarind – soaked in 300 ml water and squeezed.

Method:
1. Mix (A) together with tamarind juice.
2. Add chicken or duck pieces and leave to marinate for a few hours.
3. Transfer chicken/duck to heavy bottom saucepan and bring to boil. Cook over moderate heat for 20 minutes and reduce to low and simmer for 30 minutes for chicken and further 30 minutes for duck (or till tender)

Dessert - Pavlova with Blueberries, Raspberries and Strawberries

Pavlova - by Delia Smith

Ingredients:
3 large fresh egg whites
6 oz (175 g) caster sugar
For the topping:
10 fl oz (275 ml) whipping or double cream, whipped
12 oz (350 g) prepared mixed soft fruits, such as raspberries, strawberries and redcurrants
a little icing sugar
Method
Place the egg whites in a large clean bowl and have the sugar measured and ready. Now whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and you can turn the bowl upside down without them sliding out (it's very important, though, not to over-whisk the egg whites because, if you do, they will start to collapse).
When they're ready, start to whisk in the sugar, approximately 1 oz (25 g) at a time, whisking after each addition until all the sugar is in. Now take a metal tablespoon and spoon the meringue mixture on to the prepared baking sheet, forming a circle about 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter.

Then spoon round blobs next to each other so that they join up to form a circle all around the edge. Now, using the tip of a skewer, make little swirls in the meringue all round the edge, lifting the skewer up sharply each time to leave tiny peaks. Now place the baking sheet in the oven, then immediately turn down the heat to gas mark 1, 275°F (140°C) and leave it to cook for 1 hour.

Then turn the heat right off but leave the Pavlova inside the oven until it's completely cold. To serve the Pavlova, lift it from the baking sheet, peel off the paper and place it on a serving dish. Then just before serving, spread the whipped cream on top, arrange the fruit on top of the cream and dust with a little sifted icing sugar. Cut nto wedges.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-25T16:37:00.004Z

Merry Christmas everyone!

Meant to wake up at 0730 this morning but didn't set the alarm as I thought I would be able to do so. Unfortunately, overslept a bit and woke up at 0810. Panicked but managed to shower and get dressed and get to the kitchen before 0900. Reason I panicked was because Pat's dad was coming to lunch and I needed to get lunch ready by 1pm or thereabouts.

Got the stuffing ready last night, so stuffed it into the turkey, buttered it, covered with bacon and then foil and then into a preheated oven of 220 for 40 mins. After the 40 mins, turn down to 170 for the next 3 hours or so. During this time, made the bread sauce, prepared the veg for roasting.

At 1200 opened the foil, removed the bacon and basted the turkey. Turned the heat back to 200 and waited for the turkey to brown. The turkey was nicely browned and nice and tender and succulent!

And yes, everything was ready by about 130.

Made 3 cakes. 2 to give away and one for ourselves.

This is a carrot cake for our part time cleaner.

This was for Katrina

This was for us and had some of this after lunch

Back in London to snow

2009-12-23T15:19:00.005Z

Back to snow

First before I start, I would like to wish my beautful daughter a Happy Birthday. Sorry Mama cannot be there to share it with you!

Arrived safely back to London. From 30 deg in SG to a sudden drop to 0 deg. hmm...

Monday night, Pat only managed to get home at around 11.30 as all the roads were closed as they could not manage to grit the roads and too many cars on the roads were abandoned as they were skidding and sliding all over the place. Luckily, Pat has a 4 wheel drive, so it is manageable.

But I have been stuck at home since arriving back on Monday and the road outside our house is a slope and because it is a private road, it does not get gritted and because I do not have a 4 wheel drive, I CANNOT GO OUT! Arggh... I need to do my grocery shopping for Christmas lunch. And the supermarkets will be like crazy. It is only 1 day of public holiday but the way the people shop here, you would think that they were preparing for a famine or war or something. Their trolleys are full to the brim and mind you, the big trolleys that we have here are really BIG! I tried ordering online when I arrived back, but all the delivery slots were filled up till 27 Dec. But even if I did manage to order, they would not be able to deliver due to the reason I gave above. sigh.

Hopefully I will be able to go out tonight and get my stuff.

SJC gathering

2009-12-23T15:02:00.001Z

SJC gathering

I met up with a few of my SJC classmates and again was surprised with a birthday cake! It was only the few of us but nevertheless, it was so nice to be able to catch up with them.

Thanks Chris for opening your house to us. Blessed Christmas to you and your family.

After the gathering at Chris's place, went to church and after which the choir came back to my place for dinner.
This is my choir group - unfortnately did not have the flash on.

Card reading session

Sinseh at work

my birthday

2009-12-17T23:02:00.001Z

My Birthday

Met up with E and D for lunch and afterwards went upstairs to E's place. Never expected E to remember my birthday and bake a cake for me. How sweet of her! And their 2 girls also drew me a birthday card.

The cake was yummilicious and the card - so sweet of the girls. Thanks K and S.

Adeline and Scott's registry wedding

2009-12-12T19:00:00.000Z

My cousin's wedding

Arrived in Singapore just in time for my cousin's wedding. She had a JP come to a private room in Shang and held their solemnisation there.

This is the cake I made for Adeline and Scott. It is the simplest cake I have made so far, but because I made the flowers in London and had to carry them to SG, I was not sure how roses or other flowers would fare, hence gerberas.

Adeline and Scott

Congrats Adeline and Scott and may you have peace,happiness and love forever!

Life of Francis Wee

2009-11-22T12:50:00.008Z

Francis Wee
Born 17 Sept 1965
Safe in the arms of Jesus - 15 Sept 2009

I just want to share with my friends and his friends a few pictures of Francis.

Francis a few months old with Mama taken at her house at Bukit Ho Swee

Francis and me at Japanese Gardens

Francis 12th birthday

Found this written in my autograph book, naughty boy must have sneaked it in. I didn't even know it was in there until recently.

Another one that he sneaked in but this one must have been when he was older as the writing has somewhat matured!

Francis army days

Francis passing out

When we were back in SG in 2001

My surprise birthday party from Francis

It's just past 2 months since Francis has gone. But it still hurts and I think about him most of the time. It's always why but I know it is not for us to question - God has his plan for us except that we don't know what it is.

Still I have to thank God for looking after my mum, that although I am sure she misses Francis, she is strong and taking it in her stride.

Thank you to everyone who attended his wake and funeral. As the funeral was on Monday which was a public holiday, there was a big turn out. I am sure he was pleased to see so many people who care.

I would also like to thank a lot of people here for helping my mum clear out the shop for handing back to the landlord.
My choir friends, Liana's father and family and E who actually only went to collect a fish tank, but on seeing my mum clearing, stayed on and for the next few days, came to help.
My friend's maid, my friend who sent his workers to clear the unwanted items, my cousins... hope I have not forgotten anyone. A big thank you! Because of your collected efforts, the shop has been handed back in time.

But I just cannot believe that he is gone. He would always call on April Fool's day to try and catch me and he did in the early days but then in recent years, I always reminded myself so he couldn't catch me out anymore. But he usually managed to fool mum. But this year, he sent me a text to say that he wouldn't call to fool me,hehe. Then a few days after my wedding anniversary this year, he sent an sms to wish us a belated anniverary apologising for the belated wish saying that he was busy with work. I will miss his calls (which start - eh sis), his emails, and dinners with him when I am back,his corny jokes.... I'll miss everything about him.

Rest in peace Francis.

Love forever

Calla Lilly Wedding Cake

2009-11-01T15:00:00.000Z

Calla Lily Wedding Cake

Promised a friend that I would bake a wedding cake for her. It was a small wedding dinner celebration but I thought I would surprise them and make a 2 tier cake, partly for my own experience as well.

Well, have done roses before, so I thought I wanted to do a different kind of flower, so chose to make calla lilies. Was thinking of making just 1 colour but experimented with 3 different colours and in the end, used all three. Making the flowers separately was not a problem. Assembling it was. I know I am good with my hands, but am not creative whatsoever. So what do I do with the separate flowers? Played around with several variations, and boy, am I pleased with the end result.

Flowers in the preparation stage

Colour comparision - painted and unpainted lily

Tada - completed cake!

Bottom tier - fruit cake

Top layer - carrot cake

My brother - Francis Wee

2009-10-07T22:04:00.000+01:00

My brother, Francis Wee - 17 Sept 1965 to 15 Sept 2009

I can't even type the heading without crying. I was going to write an eulogy to my brother but cannot do it now... I will do it eventually when I don't hurt so much.

When Mediacorp came...

2009-09-02T21:59:00.004+01:00

When Mediacorp came...

Mediacorp - Channel U is going round the world (I think) filming overseas Singaporeans and what they eat. So they came on Monday, August 31 which was a bank holiday here and filmed....

Let me tell you what they wanted. They wanted someone who had a kitchen with an island - this request was sent out by San Choo who administers a few forums here. So itchy backside me sent him a pix of my kitchen as asked if it was ok. Came back to say producer likes it and could they film here?

They wanted 3 cooks to cook and compete. hehe.

First they wanted us to make fish head curry. No scrap that. Then they wanted us to make roti prata. So I practiced for a week to get it right. No, not the flipping method but the crispy prata. Managed to get that right, then they changed their minds. They said the normal way of eating prata was dipping in curry - as everyone knows ... so they don't want that. Do something fusion as in eating prata with something else. Alamak, even Pat went "Ang Mohs (Caucasions) eat roti prata with curry, what else you want them to eat with?" So anyway cracked my head as to what to cook. Thought of making fajitas and using the prata to wrap but San said it would be too cripsy to wrap. Ok, bad idea. So... second idea - make pizza with it. Pat didn't like that, so scrap that. Pat said what about prata with baked beans .. yeah yeah, funny.

So ended up making Baba Ganoush or in layman's term - Aubergine dip. This is a middle eastern dish that is normally eaten as a starter with pitta bread.

As they say, a picture paints a thousand words, so let the pictures tell you then.

Others competitors at work!

Pat

Cast and crew

Forgot to mention - they said it was scheduled to be aired on October 20 at 2009. English title is "Flavours of Singapore". But apparently the schedule may change, so watch out for this programme starting on October 13.

Glutinous Rice

2009-08-23T11:18:00.001+01:00

Glutinous Rice

Soon Kueh

2009-08-22T13:55:00.002+01:00

Soon Kueh

Another experiment as mum said she coulnd't get the skin rihgt. Made it some time ago and the last time I made it, I made it with wheat flour, so today thought I'd try it both ways - with wheat flour mixed with tapioca flour (my original recipe) and another one from another book - this one is rice flour and tapioca flour - the kind that is sold normally.

I prefer the one that uses wheat flour as is transparent and a bit more chewy whereas maybe I didn't follow the 2nd recipe correctly as the dough was a bit soft and difficult to mould. But after steaming it was alright although I did not take any pictures of it.

Filling is not supposed to be dark but as I had left over from popiah I made last week, I added dried mushrooms and dried prawns.

Beef Yakiniku

2009-08-20T21:28:00.000+01:00

Beef Yakiniku

Tofu Seafood Patties

2009-08-19T22:04:00.000+01:00

Tofu Seafood Patties

Lamb & Spinach Curry

2009-08-17T21:25:00.000+01:00

Lamb & Spinach Curry

Kueh Sarlat

2009-08-16T13:55:00.000+01:00

Kueh Sarlat

Was experimenting with the kaya topping for kueh sarlat. Hence you see more topping than rice.

Kueh Lopez

2009-08-09T12:01:00.000+01:00

Kueh Lopez

The next few weekends will see me making various kuehs as a sort of experiment to see if they work well using the mw. As you all will have gathered by now, I like to cook, but also I like to find the quickest way of making them as well. Actually this applies to work as well, but I am digressing here. hehe.

So last night soaked some glutinous rice as I wanted to make some kueh lopez.

This morning, drained the rice, then coloured it a little bit green but only found out later(from Liana) that it is meant to be yellowish and not green. Who cares as long as it tastes good and is edible right? Anyway to continue... As I didnt want to waste the rice if the MW method didn't work, I just put about 1 cupful of the rice into a big soup bowl and added water to more than cover it and nuked it for about 5 mins. Took it out and stirred it and looked ok, then put it back in for another 5 mins again. If the water has dried out and the rice is still not soft, slowly add in a little bit at a time and mw it till the rice is soft. It has to be slightly softer than your normal cooked glutinous rice.

The put it on a big piece of cling film and made it into a triangle and moulded it. Other internet sites tell you to put the cling film into a nescafe cap and mould it into a round shape.

Remove from the cling film, cover with grated coconut and pour melted gula melaka over it and serve.

If you want to do it the traditional way using banana leaf, it is like making bachang where you shape the leaf into a triangle and add the uncooked rice and put it into boiling water for about 30 mins until it is soft.