Simply.... Salads.

On my lazy days or when I run out of green veges I'll do a simple fruit salad. I'll use a combination of three to four kinds of fruits, depending on what's available in the fridge, cut them up, put in two tablespoons of the Japanese mayonaise, a tablespoonful of honey and sprinkle some diced dried mandarin orange peel and some roasted, diced almonds. Mix them up together and chill them in the fridge for a while. Sometimes I'll also add some pieces of romain lettuce into the fruit salad. This is indeed refreshing.
Here's sharing those that I've made...

Red apple, fragrant pear and cucmber salad.


Guava, cucumber, fragrant pear and grapes.

Baked fish with dried prawns, onions & mushroom

I found a couple of baked fish recipes and this recipe gave a surprising nice taste. I adapted it and did it this way ....

Ingredients:
One sea bass 500 gm (washed and gutted)

Marinade fish with .....
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chinese cooking oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cooking oil

Fry together in 3 tbsp of cooking oil......till fragrant.....
1 large yellow onion (sliced)
3 handful of dried shrimps (softened & chopped)
1 tsp Szechuan peppercorn
10 pieces shitake mushrooms (cut into halves)

Put the fried mixture on top and below the marinaded fish in a baking casserole. Cover with aluminium foil. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degree C for 30 mins.

Fabulous Fish Dishes ....

Sharing with you some photos of the fish dishes that I've cooked in the course of the year....

Red snapper baked in hot bean paste.

Portugese style fish.

Baked fish in casserole.

Stir-fry fish fillet with salted vege. & shitake mushroom.

Fish curry.

Fish in lemak curry.

Fish Curry in Italian herbs.

Braised fish in taucheo.

Steam Sponge Cake ....

My dh's favourite childhood cake is the steamed sponge cake. I've finally found the ideal recipe to make a consistent steam sponge cake. Here's sharing the one I made yesterday.

Ingredients:
250 gm top flour
250 gm caster sugar
2 tbsp milk powder
6 large eggs
60 gm corn oil

Method :
Sift flour and milk powder together.

Beat the eggs and sugar together till light pale in color and the ribbon stage. (If you lift the beaters up and do a figure of eight on the batter, the figure of 8 must be visible for about 3 secs. before disappearing).

Gradually fold in the flour mixture and oil and batter till well mix using a spatula.

Pour batter into a 8" square baking pan lined with greaseproof paper.

Cover the top with aluminium foil.

Steam on high heat for 30 mins and check if skewer comes out clean.
If not steam for another 5 to 10 mins.

Stewed chickenwings in Oyster sauce ....

Whenever I do a stew chicken dish, this is the recipe I use ....

Ingredients:
1 kg. chicken wings
8 nos. chinese mushroom, soaked.
1 potato, wedged.
1 carrot, wedged.
1 tomato, wedged.
2 pieces salted plums.
1 large onion, chopped.
3 slices ginger.

Marinade :
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
3 tsp sugar
salt to taste

Method:
Stir fry ginger, onions in 3 tbsp of hot oil till fragrant.

Add in the potato, carrot, mushroom, tomato and chicken pieces and fry for about 2 mins.

Add in the mushroom water (2 cups) or enough to cover the ingredients and the salted plums and let it boil for a while.

Cover and turn down fire and let it simmer for about an hour or till gravy thickens.

Add salt to taste and serve hot with white rice.

Enjoy.

Cheery ....Chicken dishes ....

Chicken dishes are my family's favourite especially ds B. I think we eat more chicken than red meats. Here are some chicken pics for you to enjoy ;-)....

Roast Paprika chicken.

Teriyaki chicken.

Spicy Tomato curry chicken.

Lemongrass chicken.

Baked Crispy chicken wings.

Spicy Basil chicken.

Baked Soya sauce chicken.

Salt-baked chicken quickNeasy.

Baked Curry chicken.

Chicken Adobo.

Instant Rendang chicken.

Baked BBQ chicken wings.

Thai Green curry chicken.

Vinegar chicken.

Buttercake ....Perfector!

Usually when I make a buttercake I'll use LeeLee's recipe. However, yesterday I ran out of self-raising flour and had to do some substitution with cake flour and baking powder and sodium bicarbonate. The cake turned out better than expected cos I think the cake flour gives the cake a less coarse texture.

Here's the recipe I did for the above ......

Ingredients :

250 gm butter
220 gm caster sugar
6 nos. large eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
300 gm cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sodium bicarbonate soda
half a cup evaporated milk

Method :

Preheat oven to 160 degree C.
Sieve cake flour with baking powder and bicarbonate together.
Beat butter and sugar till white and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time and mix well.
Add vanilla essence.
Fold in the flour and add milk till all are well mixed.
Pour batter into a lined and greased 9 inch square baking tin and bake for about 45 mins. Use a wooden skewer to test for doneness. If not, bake for another 5 to 10 mins. till skewer comes out clean.

Sensational ....Swiss Rolls.

I have discovered that my boys and dh like to eat the sugar roll bought from Polar Cafe. I'm therefore interested to learn how to do this swiss roll. I tried at least four times to roll the sponge.....not easy to roll to make a perfect roll. I have yet to master this. I got the sugar roll recipe from yochana's blog. This lady makes a lot of interesting swiss rolls and on top of that the rolls are beautiful and perfectly made. Someone on the M4M website also posted a video on how to roll the swiss roll and how to make the buttercream as well as how to make the lovely pattern on the skin. I'm thankful for that. So here is sharing some of the successful bakes....stay tune for more to come too.

Chatting with Mummy.....

One weekend, while waiting for the children's catechism to end in Church, I had the opportunity to chat with my mummy. I asked her ....
"How come I don't seem to remember much the food you cook?"

But I do remember her rendang which tasted heavenly and spicy in those days. The recipe she said was from one of her Malay friends. When she explained about how it's done, I was cringing cos' I realised it involved a lot of manual work.

She has not cooked for a long time cos there were maids in the house to do that for a period of time in our lives.

I also remembered her attending Tham Yu Kai Restaurant Cooking classes at the Community Centre cos' I remembered papa and I got to fetch her from there after her cooking class. I also remember seeing a hexagonal shape kind of 'sieve' which she hung somewhere in the kitchen.

I guessed that she was learning restaurant cooking cos' we , as a family couldn't afford to eat at restaurants often. She said that during this period of time I was very seldom at home to witness the mess in the kitchen cos I was busy with secondary school activities. The person who saw all the cooking done was most probably my brother cos' he was still in primary school then. She said that she was cooking a storm in the kitchen....with lots of deep frying and then steaming and then grilling.
"Oh no....so much work", I said to her and she smiled.

"Ah...you should remember the beef steaks I did", my mom said to me.
She cooked this a lot cos my papa and brother loved beef but eversince the 'Mad Cow ' disease scare we had kept off beef for the longest time.

Cakes and more cakes ....

With the many kinds of cakes that I had baked, the simple buttercake and steamed sponge cake are the family's all time favourite. Dh actually grew up eating these two kinds of cake. They were available cheaply during his growing years. The steamed sponge cake is also the cake MIL made during his growing years. The strange thing is that I discovered that although MIL made the sponge cake often, she doesn't really like eating it. It was only for her children that she made the cake. I've sampled her steamed sponge cake almost every Chinese New Year and it's never consistent. Some years, it was good and dense and some years, the steam sponge cake failed. She has the recipe in her memory and she only estimates the amount of ingredients for the cake, When she makes it every year, the cake is a huge one....about 30 cm. in diameter. I have found a recipe in Kitchencapers and it gives a consistent taste and is soft and spongy and less dense than MIL's recipe.
Her are some of my family favourite cake pics ......

Orange chiffon. Recipe from Kitchencapers by Florence.

Buttercake. Recipe is from M4M by LeeLee.

Charming Cheesecakes.....

My dsB enjoys eating cheesecakes. Most of the time when I do a cheesecake, it's usually dss A & B and myself who enjoy eating it till the last morsel. Dh will only sample the first piece offered to him and then he will never go near it again. Here are some that I've done .....

Tiramisu. The recipe was taken from Kitchencapers.Recipe contributed by MamaC.

Mango yoghurt cheesecake. Recipe is also from Kitchencapers , contributed by LeeLee.

Tolberone chocolate cheesecake (non-bake).Recipe taken from the Philadelphia cream cheese box.

Baked Oreo cheesecake. Recipe taken from M4M. This is the boys favourite.

Imitation of my kitchen life ...

My dd loves to watch over me in the kitchen. When I'm cooking, sometimes she would push the dining chair to the stove area to take a peak at the food cooking. She'll ask me to let her stir with the spatula. Of course, I'll say no and warn her about oil splatter.Here she is, during one evening when all dishes had been washed, she said.."Look at me mom, I'm cooking!"

Buns and bread ...infinite.

By now, you would have an inkling that I'm bun crazy. During my growing up days, my dad used to make sandwiches in the morning for my brother and I to bring to school. He loves to experiment with different kinds of fillings and spread for his sandwiches. Mmmm....I miss those days when he made sandwiches for me to eat in school. Now I bake breads for my children and dh to eat . My dh and ds B are not bread persons, ds J loves to eat bread and can eat plain bread spread with chocolate for breakfast and lunch for days. Ds A doesn't mind eating bread if he fancies them. Not all the bread I baked are loved by them.:-(
Sharing here are some of the breads they don't mind eating.
Red bean paste buns.

Cinnamon buns.

Paipan bread.

Sausage buns.

Lenten Festive Bakes ....

It has been a couple of years now since I started the tradition of making pancakes and baking pretzels and hotcross buns during the season of Lenten. The pancake is Min Jiang Kueh from Kitchencapers by LeeLee.
The pretzels and hotcross buns recipe were from the website called CatholicMom. I hope to keep the tradition alive as this practice helps the family to focus on the significance of Lent as this period of time is not like any other days in the year.
My next mission for this season of Lent is to find a nice recipe for an Easter Bake. What would it be? ...mmmm....Stay tune!


Min Jiang Kueh.

Pretzels.

Hotcross buns.

Jelly, agar-agar, chocolate and candy....

At one stage I was interested in making chocolate or rather moulding chocolate. I attended a chocolate moulding session at Gina's place. Learned how to mould chocolate and take care of the moulds. Also learned about the different kinds of chocolate and where to get certain qualities of chocolate. It was indeed a fruitful lesson and these are some of my creations to share with you.....

Chocolate lollypops.


The chocolate box and lolly made at the Chocolate Session.

Here are also some of the other things I made in the course of the year ....

Milo agar-agar.

Mango konyaku jelly.

Flabby candy.