Chocolate Fudge Cake

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

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.
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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
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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
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Be sure to dab the top tip with egg yolk so it sticks while frying.
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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

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

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

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 aka Japanese mee goreng

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
worchester sauce
Some white wine or sake or water
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, wine or water and worchester sauce and stir till well mixed.
3. Add in the prawns and season.

Ondeh ondeh

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!