Stir fry fish slices with kecap manis

I was contemplating whether to just do a simple steam fish with soy sauce then I remembered I had the bottle of kecap manis sitting in my cupboard. I saw some cooking members making ikan bakar (grilled fish) using kecap manis but there were quite a number of ingredients and I would need to marinate for some time. After doing some Googling (as usual), I decided to try this recipe at Indochine Kitchen which has a simple sauce recipe - Fried fish with sweet soy sauce! Did a few modifications here and there so I am not sure if it should taste the way it was but husband said it's good so I am happy. :)

Ingredients
Fish slices (I used red grouper, abt 2 pax servings)
1 clove garlic
1 small onion
Cornstarch
Soy sauce
Chinese cooking wine 
Some salt
Pepper
Chopped spring onions

Sauce
3 Tbsp Kecap manis
1/2 lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup water

Recipe
1. Marinate the fish slices in soy sauce, chinese cooking wine and cornstarch. (Estimated)
2. Slice the garlic and onions and set aside. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir well.
3. Heat up oil in the wok and pan fry the fish slices till they are just cooked. Put it aside.
4. Using the same wok, just add a little more oil and stir fry the garlic and onion till fragrant.
5. Add the sauce in and let it cook until it starts to bubble. Try the sauce and adjust to your liking. I add a pinch of salt and dash of pepper.
6. Return the fish slices to the wok and let it cook for a little while and ensure it is evenly coated with sauce.
7. Turn off the heat and garnish with spring onions before serving.

Will definitely try this recipe again with lime juice to feel the difference. If you take spicy, I think some chopped chilli will be good!

Baked salmon with cheese and capsicum

I have never really like capsicums since young. Maybe because my mum does not cook them. But I have learn to incorporate them in my cooking occasionally because I like the flavour it imparts on the meat and fish. Pardon my photo below cuz I know you cannot see the salmon at all due to overloading of cheese and capsicum. I was trying to clear the fridge... :p 

Ingredients
Salmon
Capsium (yellow & green)
Bunashimeiji
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Some stock
Shredded cheese mix  (for pizza etc.)
Dried parsley

Recipe
1. Marinate the salmon with salt and pepper and place them on the baking tray.
2. Cut the capsicum into cubes and remove the bottom parts of the bunashimeiji mushrooms. Arrange them on top of the salmon.
3. Add the shredded cheese on top to ensure it is covered.
4. Drizzle olive oil over it and add some stock to it. (I added the ABC soup I was cooking)
5. Bake at 180 degree celcius till it is cooked. (Mine took about 10 minutes)
6. Sprinkle dried parsley before serving.

I actually added in the stock last minute before I baked the salmon because I was worried that baking will make the salmon dry. With the stock, the salmon turned out to be nicely moist and taste great with the melted cheese. I also tried to make sure my salmon slices are not too thick and spread them nicely on the tray so that I can shorten the baking time.

Because this dish turned out to be better than expected, I was very happy! Good to try when you want to clear leftover capsicum. ^^

Pan fry fish with ginger citrus sauce

Nowadays when I cook 红斑鱼 or the red grouper (I think that is the correct English name...), I like to pan fry it. I find that pan frying it makes it nicer than steaming. That is my personal opinion. Today I actually planned to cook it with ginger and soy sauce. But I saw half a lemon sitting in my fridge and I wanted to use that. Was thinking whether I should cut the fish into slices then deep fry it before making the lemon sauce. Due to time constraint, I decided to just pan fry the fish first and make the sauce after that. It was a good move as I managed to stir fry my vegetables while pan frying the fish.

Ingredients
Red grouper thick slice (any other fish that has firm flesh)
Ginger strips
Cornstarch solution 

Sauce
1 part lemon juice
2 part orange juice 
Some water 
1/2 tsp sugar
Pinch of salt

Recipe
1. Clean the fish and rub it with salt. Wash off the salt and pat dry with kitchen towel.
2. Oil the pan and gently place the fish in. Allow it to pan fry on medium heat for at least few minutes on each side till it is brown. Remove from heat and place on serving plate.
3. Clean the pan with kitchen towel and oil the pan again. I like to use the same pan to save some washing.
4. Heat up some oil in the pan before adding the ginger strips. Let it cook for a while till it starts to brown. Pour in the sauce and allow it to cook till boil. In the meanwhile, season the sauce with sugar and salt till the desired taste.
5. Add in the cornstarch solution to thicken the sauce. Pour the sauce over the fish once it is done.

My first attempt I used more lemon juice than orange juice. It was quite sour and I had to adjust with more sugar. Hence I think 2:1 portion should be better. Love the refreshing taste of this dish!

Baked chicken leg with tomato sauce

Today is only Tuesday and I am already feeling so worn out. Coming back home, the only thought on my mind is to prepare the dinner in the simplest way and serve dinner asap. Last week I baked chicken leg with five spice powder and this week I am back to baking chicken legs again! lol At least for this week, this is the preferred method for cooking cuz it is my cheat method for saving time. While the chicken is nicely cooking in the oven, I use the time to blanch the vegetables and wash up the dirty dishes.

Ingredients
2 chicken legs (boneless)

Marinate
3 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
3 Tbsp tomato sauce
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Some black pepper
Pinch of salt

Recipe
1. Put all ingredients for the marinate in a small bowl and mix well.
2. Marinate the chicken using some of the sauce for a few minutes. (a few tablespoon of sauce, as long as enough to cover the chicken will do)
3. Heat up a pan and pan fry the chicken on both sides. Remove when the skin turns brown.
4. Preheat the oven at 200 degree celcius and arrange the chicken on the baking tray with skin side up.
5. Pour the remaining sauce onto the chicken and let it bake till juice runs clear. I baked mine for about 15 minutes.

I tried to pan fry the chicken first because I wanted to try to see if it makes any difference and to shorten the baking time too. My husband said the chicken is slightly not-so-tender at some parts which I am not sure whether it is due to me pan frying first or I just bake it too long. Maybe next time I will just marinate and put the chicken straight into the oven to see if it is better. ^^

Baked five spice chicken leg

My first experience using five spice powder was making braised pork belly. I love the smell of the five spices so I am always excited to find recipes that use five spice powder. I would also put the powder when I am making ngoh hiang. Picture of the five spice powder I bought from NTUC below.

One year ago, I chanced upon a kind member who shared her recipe on marinating chicken legs with five spice powder and air fried it. I thought it was a very good idea and tried it. Wanted to find the original recipe and credit the owner but couldn't find it. I had it manually written down in my cooking notepad last year. Anyway this is strongly recommend for a simple quick dish with minimum fuss. Do try the recipe!

Ingredients
2 large chicken legs
Chopped spring onions

Marinate
4 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Dark soy sauce
1 tsp Sugar
Dash of white pepper
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1 Tbsp water

Recipe
1. Put all the marinate ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Pour marinate all over the chicken legs and set aside for at least 1-2 hours in the refrigerator.
3. When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200 degree celcius.
4. On the baking tray, place the chicken skin side down and drizzle all the marinate on it.
5. Bake the chicken leg in the oven for at least 30 minutes. After first 10-15 minutes, flip the chicken over to face skin side up. Continue baking until it is fully cooked. The timing really depends on the size of your chicken legs. Also I realised with bone, it takes longer to cook. So if you get boneless chicken legs, it should be cooked faster.

 My husband is not the type to praise my cooking but he did say this is nice. The chicken is flavorful and tender according to him. :)

Teochew style fish porridge with spinach and wolfberries

I asked my son what he wanted to have for dinner that day when his daddy is not around and he replied "fish porridge". Then I was thinking what kind of porridge should I make? Usually I would cook the porridge till it is congee-like and put in the fish slices to cook. Teochew style fish porridge came to my mind. For the fish slices, I chose to use 红斑鱼. Not sure what should be the correct English name for this fish. Red grouper or red snapper or something else? If you know, pls drop me a comment to tell me, thanks! To make it more nutritious, I added in some spinach and wolfberries too.

Ingredients
Fish slices
Cooked rice
Spinach
Wolfberries
Fried shallots
Soy beans
Fish bones
Ginger slices
Chinese cooking wine
White pepper
Soy sauce 
Salt

Recipe
1. Wash the soy beans and place them in a stock bag. Heat a pot of boiling water and add the beans to let it boil for 20-30 minutes.
2. Add in some fish bones and ginger slices to let it further cook for another 15 minutes.
3. Marinate the fish slices with some chinese cooking wine, pepper and soy sauce. Mix well then set aside.
4. Remove the fish bones and soy beans from the pot. You may remove the ginger slices if you want but I preferred to have mine in the soup.
5. Add the cooked rice into the soup. (Make sure your cooked rice is not too mushy else it won't be nice)
6. Add the spinach and wolfberries into the pot. Let it cook for a while.
7. Finally put in the fish slices. I use a chopstick to lift the slices into the soup. Do not pour marinade into the pot.
8. Taste the soup. You can add some salt if you prefer a heavier taste.
9. Garnish with some fried shallots and serve it hot.

This will definitely be on the list of comfort food I love! Makes your stomach feel so satisfied and warm. For my own serving, I added a bit of dong cai and the flavour is so good. (Skipped that for my son because I think it is too salty for him.)

Another dish that you can serve easily for dinner on weekday too. I did step 1 in the morning before I stepped out for work and completed the rest when I get home. Thaw the fish in the refrigerator the night before or the morning itself, then it will be semi thaw in the evening which makes it easier to cut into slices. As for the fish bones, I used the cod fish bones I had. I must find a time to cook this again since my husband missed my first attempt!

Baked lemon chicken leg in Italian herbs

It has been a while since I posted an entry on this cooking blog. I would love to spend time experimenting different dishes and updating the recipes on my blog. However the reality is ever since I went back to full time work, I am struggling to get dinner done everyday. I have to jump off my seat (literally) when it is 6pm and mad rush to the childcare to pick up my son before going home to cook. Still, I am glad on some days when I have mood to cook, the dishes aren't that bad. Sharing a simple baked chicken dish I tried today. Loved how nicely baked the chicken skin is and lemon juice makes it extra yummy!

Here's the recipe I have referenced from - roasted lemon herb chicken. What I loved about the recipe - the ingredients are easy to get and preparation time is short. I could pop this into the oven and started washing up my dishes.

Ingredients
2 chicken legs
1 tsp Italian herbs
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper 
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 lemon
1 Tbsp olive oil

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree celcius.
2. Mix the Italian herbs, salt, black pepper and garlic powder in a bowl.
3. Pat dry the chicken legs with kitchen towel and spread the mixture all over the chicken legs.
4. Cut the lemon into half. Juice half of it and add olive oil to it. Pour it over the chicken. The remaining half you can cut into slices and place it around the chicken.
5. Bake for 35 minutes or until the juice runs clear.

Minced meat egg fried rice

Ever since I started cooking, this was my second time attempting fried rice. I still remember the first time I made salmon egg fried rice and this time I tried to make using minced meat. My inspiration came from a youtube video of 阿基師 making egg fried rice. I was so impressed by his method of doing it and seriously it is just easy and yummy!

Ingredients
1 1/2 portion of cooked white rice
carrot
long beans
fresh shiitake mushrooms
minced meat 
2 eggs
minced garlic 
chopped spring onions

Recipe
1. Cut the vegetables (carrot, long beans and shiitake mushrooms) into cubes. Steam carrot and long beans for about 5 to 10 minutes while setting aside the cubed mushrooms. I did this to quicken the cooking process as I was rushing to serve dinner. :p Then, while steaming, marinate the minced meat with sesame oil, soy sauce and pepper.
2. Crack the eggs and separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. Place the egg yolks onto the cooked white rice in a bowl and mix well to coat the rice evenly using a spatula.
3. Heat up the oil in the wok and add in minced garlic. Stir fry the garlic till fragrant then add in the marinated minced meat to cook. When the meat is almost cooked, add in the cubed mushrooms. Remove from wok to set aside.
4. In the same wok, add in oil and pour in the egg white. Do a scrambled egg white then add in the cooked rice. Stir fry till the rice becomes dry and the grains are not sticking to each other.
5. Add in the meat and vegetables to give a quick stir fry and season with some soya sauce and pepper. Garnish with chopped spring onions and it is done.

Sorry if the ingredients looked a bit strange as I was clearing the vegetables in the fridge. Well, fried rice is really one of the best way to combine the leftovers! As a gauge, I think 2 eggs for 1 portion of rice is good. The rice really looked nice and yellow even though my photo does not show well of that. :)

Minced meat tofu with sauce

When I have minced meat and tofu on hand, I tend to go for steaming because it is easy to prepare. I really like to attempt mapo tofu some day but am not very keen on cooking spicy dishes for now as my son is still too young for hot stuffs. So, I decided to try experimenting with the sauce to create similar sauce kind of dish. It's a great dish for young kids and those who are not so keen on chilli.

Ingredients

70-80g minced meat

1 block of silken tofu

Sesame oil

White pepper

Soy sauce 

Cornstarch

Minced garlic

Chopped spring onions 

Sauce  

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp tomato sauce 

2 tsp sugar 

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce 

Water 

Recipe

1. Marinate the minced meat with white pepper, light soy sauce, sesame oil and a little cornstarch. Remove tofu from the packaging and cut into small cubes to set aside.

2. In a small bowl, prepare the sauce by mixing the sauce ingredients listed above and top it up with water to approximately half the bowl. You can add a little more water in step 4 if you find that the sauce is not enough to your liking.

3. Heat up oil in the wok, then add in minced garlic to stir fry till fragrant. Add in the marinated minced meat to stir fry. Gently use the spatula to break the minced meat into small pieces as you cook.
4. When the meat is almost fully cooked, pour the sauce to cook. Let it boil for a while before adding in the tofu cubes.  
5. Test the taste of the sauce and adjust accordingly. Then add some cornstarch solution and allow it to thicken. 
6. Remove from wok, garnish with the chopped spring onions and serve. 

My family enjoyed this dish very much. Usually my son takes a long time to eat his dinner but with this dish, he ate well. Definitely a dish that I am going to prepare again next time!

Fried purple sweet potato fries

My friend introduced me this yummy sweet potato fries during one of our gatherings. Then during one of my weekday lunches, I had Mac sweet potato fries again with my colleagues. It is so yummy! I happened to have one purple sweet potato left in my fridge so I decided to make this for fun.

Ingredients
Purple sweet potato
Cornstarch
Salt
Dried parsley

Recipe
1. Cut the sweet potato into thin long strips. Try to make them as uniform as possible.
2. Steam them till they are turning soft, but not mushy.
3. Add oil in the wok and heat up. Prepare cornstarch solution for dipping.
4. Dip the sweet potato strips into the cornstarch solution then fry it. It takes about 2 minutes to be done.
5. Try to fry in batches so that they can be uniformly cooked. Remove from wok and sprinkle on some salt for seasoning. Sprinkle the dried parsley before serving.

Miso baked salmon

While I was working, I was thinking how should I cook the salmon for dinner? Found a recipe by this cooking blog - white on rice couple (their blog name is so cute!) sharing their lovely recipe roasted salmon with miso glaze! I am pretty satisfied with the overall taste. We all ate a lot of rice!

Ingredients
1 salmon fillet
1 Tbsp white miso paste
1/2 Tbsp sake (I replaced with my own rice wine)
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Sesame seeds
Chopped spring onions

Recipe
1. In a bowl, add in the white miso paste, sake, soy sauce, brown sugar and sesame oil and mix well.
2. Brush the marinade on the salmon fillet and set aside for 30 minutes.
3. Remove some of the marinade off the fillet, leaving a thin layer. (Additional step as I did not want it to be too salty)
4. Bake it in preheated oven at 190 degree celcius for 20 minutes. (In between baking, the fillet looked a bit dry and I brushed it with some olive oil.)
5. Sprinkle the sesame seeds and spring onions for garnish.

Wong Bok soup with Pork ribs

Soup is always essential for our weekday dinners. I cannot imagine having dinner without soup. Other than my usual ABC soup, pumpkin soup etc, I cook this soup often because I love the sweetness of wong bok. This time I added in special ingredient - white fungus! Seems like the haze is not fully gone so I thought it is good to add something nourishing for our lungs. :) 

Ingredients
Wong bok
Carrot
White fungus
Pork ribs
Garlic
Ginger
Salt

Recipe
1. Cut away diagonally the bottom thick part of wong bok and separate the leaves. Wash them and cut them into a few sections before placing them in the pot.
2. Peel the carrot, cut them into chucks and add them into the pot. Soak the white fungus for a while before trimming and cutting them into smaller pieces to add in as well. Pour hot water till it is fully covered.
3. Par boil the pork ribs in a separate pot till the scum is formed. Pour away the scum and rinse the pork ribs before adding them into the soup pot.
4. Peel a few garlic cloves and smash a knob size of ginger to add in.
5. Let it cook for 1 - 2 hours and season with salt before serving.

Fritillary Bulb Soup with pear and snow fungus

Due to a recent infection, my son has been coughing every night without fail. Even with the strong cough medicine prescribed by the doctor, his cough has been persisting and often worsened at night. It was very worrying as he seldom fall sick like this. I chanced upon a kind soul (Ms Shuzhi Xu) sharing a recipe for cough on a Facebook cooking group - fritillary bulb soup. I was so delighted and went to medical hall to get the ingredients to prepare for the soup. The shop assistant advised me to get the pre-packed versions they have if I am not going to cook often. Below is the instructions printed on the box. In addition to the pack, I have added half a pear (the pear I bought was very big) and some snow fungus. Also, I added some rock sugar to sweeten the soup in order to entice my son to drink. :p

I am really amazed that this soup works wonder! I let my son drank a small bowl yesterday and he did not cough at all during the night. This morning he coughed a little but I could hear the cough has become lighter. You can read about the benefits of this soup online (fritillaria benefits). Good to know that it will help to moisten the lungs. Got my husband to drink a bowl as well since the haze has been quite bad.

Breakfast burger with homemade sauce

I hate to wake up early on weekends because we always have to wake up early and rush to work on weekday mornings. However, the nearest mall is now under renovation and we have limited options which is why I tried to prepare some simple breakfast at home instead of eating out. My son suggested having burgers for breakfast that day. I thought this is a pretty good idea hence sharing it in my blog. You can easily get the burgers from supermarket along with meat patties like me or you can make them yourselves (I have not tried making bread yet!) I will share the simple sauce recipe that I used below. It is really easy and tasty! Try it and you will know.

Ingredients
Mayonnaise
Tomato Sauce
Garlic powder 
Black pepper
Vinegar

Recipe
1. Depending on how much sauce you need, prepare the mayonnaise and tomato sauce in the ratio 2:1
2. In the bowl, add the mayonnaise and tomato sauce to mix together using a fork.
3. Add in about 1/2 tsp of vinegar (depends on how tangy you like the sauce to be)
4. Add in some garlic powder with a dash of black pepper.
5. Taste and adjust accordingly.

My ugly but yummy burgers! My husband commented I need to do some part time at fast food restaurants to practise how to stack the ingredients in a burger. lol

Steamed minced meat on egg tofu

It has been a while since I last blogged my recipes. My laptop was down (I probably need a new laptop), my son has been down with fever and cough and Singapore was also down with very bad haze weather. I have taken a stretch of leave to care for my son at home and it was really exhausting compared to going to work. He requested for me to cook his favourite egg tofu again and I decided to make the easy dish that I often cooked when I have no idea what to prepare - steamed minced meat on egg tofu!

Ingredients
1 tube egg tofu
Minced meat
Coriander
Wolfberries
Soy sauce
Pepper 
Sesame oil
Water/stock 

Recipe
1. Marinate the minced meat with some soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil. I added some chopped coriander for some additional flavour as I happened to have it in my fridge.
2. Soak the wolfberries in a bowl of water to soften. Cut the egg tofu into small circles and place them on the steaming plate.
3. Using a small spoon, scoop some marinated meat and use your hand to shape it before putting it on the egg tofu. Remove water from the bowl and place a wolfberry on the top of the minced meat (as shown in the pic). The remaining wolfberries just scatter them around the steaming plate.
4. For the steaming sauce, just make a solution of soy sauce and water and pour it from the side into the steaming plate. I was cooking ABC soup so I took some of the soup and added soy sauce instead.
5. Turn on the electric steamer till it is hot then steam it for 10 to 12 minutes.

This is perfect for weekday cooking isn't it? Once you put the dish into steamer, you have free time to prepare another dish or do some washing before the dinner starts. :) For variation, you can add in some fish paste or chopped prawns or even switch the minced meat to prawns. Sometimes I would add in some chopped onions to add some sweetness and texture to the minced meat.

Traditional baked mooncake

I had a great time baking Chinese new year cookies at the start of the year. For someone who is still new to baking, I was very interested in making traditional cookies and snacks (because I love to eat them so much!). So in one of my impromptu visit to Phoon huat, I bought the ingredients for making mooncakes. After much procrastination, mainly due to me going to work full time now, I finally found a weekend night to do it. ^^

Before doing it, I actually spent quite some time watching various YouTube tutorials posted to get an idea how to wrap the mooncakes etc. and also reading up on many bloggers' recipes and blog entries to understand the process and what are the important steps to achieve successful mooncakes. The recipe below is adapted from Happy Home Baking - traditional mooncake.

Ingredients
Dough
100g Plain flour
70g Redman sugar syrup
2ml Alkaline water
25ml Peanut oil

Paste
I used ready-to-use green tea lotus paste (420g)

Note: This recipe will yield 12 mini mooncakes (50g)

Recipe
1. In a bowl, add in the sugar syrup and and alkaline water. Mix well before adding in the oil. Ensure that the mixture is well mixed.
2. Put the flour in a mixer bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the mixture of sugar syrup, alkaline water and oil. Use a spatula to mix gently and well incorporate the flour to form a soft dough.
3. Wrap the bowl with cling wrap and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight. (Due to space constraint in my fridge, I transferred the dough to a smaller container and cling wrap for exactly 2 hours.
4. Divide the paste into 35g portions and roll them into small balls. Set aside.
5. After 2 hours, remove the dough from the fridge. Flour your hands and give it a few kneads before dividing them into 15g portions.
6. Put one portion of the dough on one side of a piece of cling wrap. Flip the other side up (like how you close a book) and then use the rolling pin to spread the dough evenly into a circle.
7. Gently remove the dough from the cling wrap and put the filling in the centre. Wrap the dough around the filling and ensure it is fully enclosed.
8. Dust the dough with some flour and place it into the mooncake mould. I shaped the dough to make it elongated so that it can fit in the mould without touching the sides. If you put the round dough in, the sides might get cut to expose the filling. Press firmly on the tabletop before lifting to release the mooncake. (Mine is the press and release type of mould).
9. Place all the mooncakes on the baking tray lined with baking paper. Spray some water on the top of the mooncakes to prevent cracking.
10. Bake the mooncakes at preheated oven 180 degree celcius for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven to cool down for 15 minutes. The cooling down step is very important and should not be skipped.
11. Do an egg wash for the mooncakes before returning the mooncakes to the oven to continue baking at 180 degree celcius for 15 minutes. Watch over the mooncakes for this second round baking as it might brown earlier than the stipulated time depending on the oven!
12. Remove from the oven and let it cool down completely before storing them into air-tight containers. Do not try to taste the mooncakes at this point as they are not ready. It will take 2-3 days for the mooncake skin to soften and only then it will be ready to serve!

I am very happy to see the mooncakes nicely done. Yeah it is another tick off my cooking checklist! The wrapping part reminded me of making pineapple tarts except that I find that mooncake dough is even harder to wrap. I think I definitely need more practice to improve on that. If you are not confident to wrap like me, I would strongly recommend using the cling wrap and rolling pin method to roll out the dough before moving on to wrapping. Try not to roll it too thinly and lightly dust the dough with flour before you start rolling. It will make wrapping a less stressful step. :) I shall be patient to wait and try my mooncakes in another 2 days!

Lime honey jelly

I was cutting vegetables to make Japanese curry for dinner when an idea suddenly popped in my mind. I had bought a bag of small limes with plans to make lime honey tea for my husband when I am free. Then I had this idea to make lime honey jelly which sounds great for this hot hazy weather. So I tried it out with the gelatine that I had at home and it was great success! ^^b

Ingredients
2 small limes
3 Tbsp honey
250 ml water
3 tsp gelatin 

Recipe
1. Heat up 250ml of water till it is warm. (note: not boiling, just warm enough to dissolve the gelatin)
2. Cut the limes into halves and squeeze the juice into a small bowl. Remove the seeds and pour the juice into the warm water.
3. Add in 3 Tbsp of honey then stir to mix well.
4. Add 3 tsp of gelatin and mix thoroughly till it is fully dissolved.
5. Pour into desired container and let it cool down before transferring to the fridge.
6. It will take about 4 hours to set. Best to let it chill overnight in fridge before serving.

The above recipe will make 2 cups of jelly which is just nice for my family of three. You can adjust the taste of the jelly before you add the gelatin. It is better to make it sweeter than your desired taste as it will taste less sweet when it is done. The amount of gelatin will determine the firmness of your jelly. If you decrease the gelatin, it will become more wobbly. Mine is closer to the firmer texture. I actually like this jelly more than konnyaku jelly as it is less of a choking hazard for toddlers. 

Spicy salmon fusilli

A trip down to the supermarket with my family with a trolley and we ended up buying a lot of stuffs which I usually don't buy. That includes a cute bag of alphabet pasta for my son and fusilli for us. In order to put it to good use, I decided to make pasta for a quick lunch. I remembered how I used to buy pasta sauce and always ended up throwing away the unfinished portion because I only used it once or twice before it expired. So this time, I tried to make a simple sauce with whatever I had at home in order not to waste and it was a good lunch!

Ingredients
Fusilli
Salmon
Chilli sauce
Tomato sauce
Italian herbs 
1 finely chopped onion
1 tsp chopped garlic
Salt
Pepper

Recipe
1. Marinate the salmon with salt, pepper and olive oil and steam it till it is done (about 7 minutes for me).
2. Use a fork to flake the salmon and set aside.
3. In a pot of boiling water, add some salt and put in the fusilli. Boil it for 8 minutes or until al dente. Sieve the fusilli and put it on the serving plate.
4. Heat up the wok and add some oil. Once the oil is hot, add in the chopped onions then the garlic. Cook till the onion turns translucent.
5. Put in the chilli sauce and tomato sauce (I used equal proportion, you can adjust to your taste). Then add in some water.
6. Let it boil till it starts to thicken. Add in 1/2 tsp of Italian herbs.You can adjust the taste or the thickness  of the sauce here.
7. Add the salmon flakes and mix well. Transfer the sauce onto the fusilli.
8. You can add some steamed broccoli if you like to have some vegetables.

For my son's portion, I did not add any chilli sauce. It was done with only tomato sauce and tasted great too. I think it would be great to add in chopped tomatoes too if you happened to have it in your kitchen.

Minced meat with egg tofu

My son loves egg tofu very much. He always make sure I buy egg tofu whenever we go supermarket. So I have to find ways and means to incorporate egg tofu into my cooking. Minced meat egg tofu is a very common dish and I also cook it quite frequently using oyster sauce. But I wanted to make a different sauce this time so decided to experiment using tomato sauce and kecap manis which I seldom use and we love it!

Ingredients
1 tube egg tofu
Minced meat
1/2 onion
1 clove of chopped garlic 
Tomato sauce
Kecap manis
Soy sauce
Corn starch
Spring onions

Recipe
1. Chop the onion into dices and marinate the minced meat with soy sauce and cornstarch.
2. Cut the egg tofu into slices and pan fry them on the pan with some oil for at least 3 minutes each side to brown it. Remove and set aside. Make the sauce using tomato sauce, kecap manis and soy sauce.
3. Heat up the oil in the wok and add in the chopped onions and garlic. Let it cook for a little while till the onion look translucent then add the minced meat.
4. Stir fry the meat until it is no longer pink then add in the sauce. Let it cook for a few minutes and when it starts to thicken, you can return the egg tofu to the wok and mix well. 
5. Turn off the heat and serve on plate. Garnish with spring onions.

The sour taste from tomato sauce, balanced with the sweetness of kecap manis and savoury from the soy sauce makes quite a good combination. I am so happy it turned out well. I can now put my sauces to better use. :)

Steamed chicken with black fungus

I like to steam dishes when the weather gets hazy. It makes things a lot easier in the kitchen. I remembered my mum passed me some dried stuffs last month and I have not started using black fungus. When I was searching "steamed chicken with black fungus" in Google, I found this recipe by My Kitchen Snippets - Steamed chicken with mushrooms and black fungus. Got really tempted to try out the recipe as it did not seemed too difficult. 

Ingredients
1 chicken leg (deboned)
Dried black fungus
Dried wolfberries
Spring onions
Cornstarch
Soy sauce
Rice wine
Oyster sauce
Pepper
Salt 

Recipe
1. Soak the black fungus and wolfberries in separate bowls. After the black fungus expanded, remove the centre which is hard and cut them into thin slices.
2. Cut the chicken leg into bite size pieces. Marinate in soy sauce, pepper and cornstarch and place them on the steaming dish.
3. Add the black fungus to the chicken and distribute evenly by mixing.
4. In a bowl, add oyster sauce, rice wine and salt. Adjust the taste to your liking. (I did 1:1 proportion for oyster sauce : rice wine.) As rice wine is sweet, it is okay to add salt to balance the taste.
5. Pour the sauce over the chicken then sprinkle the wolfberries on top.
6. Steam the chicken for 15 to 20 minutes. (Mine took about 20 minutes in the electrical steamer)
7. Garnish with spring onions and put a dash of pepper if you like. Serve hot.

My husband gave thumbs up for this dish. Personally I am surprised as it tastes better than my expectation. The chicken turned out to be smooth and tender. Very nice to go with rice. I can see myself cooking this often for weekday dinners. :)

Steamed cake

This morning I woke up realising I forgot to buy bread for breakfast and wondered what should I do? Because I have five types of medicine to take every morning, I try to take them before going to work. It is such a hassle every morning but I have no choice. (>_<) Suddenly saw an old post-it note on my fridge with the steamed cake recipe and so I made it for breakfast!

Ingredients
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp oil

Recipe
1. Measure flour and baking powder and put them in a mixing bowl.
2. In another bowl, put in the egg, milk honey and oil. Use a fork or whisk to mix well.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl containing the dry ingredients.
4. Use a spatula to mix well. Do not overmix. Just ensure it is well combined.
5. Steam for about 10 minutes or until toothpick comes clean when poked.

I used sugar last time when I first try steaming cake but I find that it is dry. Honey gives the cake a very nice moist texture. You can always add raisins or vary the ingredients to come up with more variations! :) This recipe makes only 3 cupcakes. You might want to double if you want to make more.

Banana yoghurt bread

I have recently baked two banana recipes - fluffy banana cake and banana walnut cupcake. Now I got another bunch of bananas from my mum to clear. One of my colleagues told me if she were me, she would prefer to eat the bananas rather than baking it. Strangely I love banana cakes very much but not exactly a fan of the fruit itself. Anyway, I had one plain yoghurt sitting in my fridge for quite some days. What can I do to kill 2 birds with 1 stone? The answer is Greek yogurt banana bread from Running with spoons. The ingredients are available at home and I was so curious about not adding any oil or butter. How would it turn out to be? ^^

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup Plain flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Eggs (lightly beaten)
2 Bananas (approx 1 cup mashed)
1/2 cup Plain yogurt
1/4 cup Maple syrup
2 Tbsp Brown sugar 

Recipe
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree celcius and grease the bread pan.
2. Sieve the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Mix well.
3. In another bowl, put in the beaten eggs then add mashed banana, yogurt, maple syrup and brown sugar. Mix well after each addition.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir gently using spatula till it is well combined. Do not overmix.
5. Pour the batter into the bread pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Mine finished baking at 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick to poke and see if the middle comes clean.
6. Remove from oven and let it cool for at least 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

I am quite satisfied with the result although there is definitely room for improvement. It is my first bread. :) The bread smells really great when it was baking. It does not taste sweet at all even with the brown sugar. (note: original recipe calls for 1/4 cup but I decided to add in 2 Tbsp last minute.) My husband gave it thumbs up too! Very healthy bread too with the yogurt and oil-free. I can see myself making this again!

Steamed cod with garlic sauce

My son loves to eat cod fish and we steam cod very often. When I first started steaming fish, I usually stick to using just soy sauce and sesame oil. Lucky my son was still quite young then, so he did not complain about eating the same thing. I spend a lot of time reading recipes and hoping to find easy yet tasty recipes for steaming fish and steaming with garlic is one I strongly recommend! Hong Kong Style steamed cod fish by Annielicious is one such recipe that inspires me.

Ingredients
1 slice of Cod
Ginger slices 
Minced garlic
Chopped spring onions (garnish)
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Water
Sugar

Recipe
1. Steam the cod fish with some ginger slices for 7 minutes or until it is cooked. (I used an electric steamer and it also depends on the thickness of the fish)
2. In a pan, heat up some oil and put in the minced garlic. Keep the heat at medium and cook till the garlic turns brown.
3. Put in some oyster sauce, soy sauce and water to mix in a bowl and pour it in the pan. Add sugar to balance the taste. You can adjust the taste to your liking here.
4. When the fish is cooked, pour away the water and move the fish to the serving plate.
5. Pour the sauce over the fish. Sprinkle the spring onions and serve.

One lesson I have learnt from many recipes online is adding sugar. I never know putting in sugar can make such a difference in the taste. It balances the savoury taste and makes the food even more delicious! If you have rock sugar, that is best! Else you can also use normal sugar like I did.

Enoki bacon maki

Bacon-wrapped vegetables seemed to be a common dish when I go Japanese restaurants for meals. The other day I had left over bacon from my breakfast so decided to make enoki bacon maki essentially enoki mushrooms wrapped with bacon. I think this dish can go with or without sauce but since my husband loves sauce, I made a simple one below.

Ingredients
4 pieces of Bacon
1 pack of Enoki mushrooms
Some butter or oil
Salt
Pepper

Sauce
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Sugar
Garlic powder

Recipe
1. Cut off the bottom part of Enoki mushrooms and divide the pack  into 8 portions.
2. Take 4 pieces of bacon and cut them into equal halves.
3. Place 1 stack of mushrooms on the edge of the bacon (nearer to you) and roll the bacon to wrap it up. Press the mushroom a little to wrap it tight. Repeat for the rest of the bacon and mushrooms. Put a little salt and pepper when you finish wrapping.
4. Put a little butter (or oil) on a heated sauce pan and put in the enoki bacon maki. I did 4 at a time to better control the cooking.
5. Cook till it is slightly brown (about 3 minutes) then turn it to the other side. During the cooking, cover the saucepan from time to time so that the mushrooms can be cooked. Arrange them on the plate.
6. If you prefer some sauce, you can prepare a simple one like mine. Just water and add some oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar with some garlic powder. Heat till boiling and thicken with cornstarch solution. Drizzle on the maki and it's done.

My husband didn't quite fancy this dish in the end as it is a mouthful to eat. Lol Maybe enoki fans will like it. lol 

Cheese egg roll

I love to cook eggs because they are quick to cook and tasty. The usual methods preferred are omelette and steamed egg. Came across this very useful video tutorial on youtube teaching how to make egg rolls using a saucepan and I am addicted to doing it! Tamagoyaki - Eugenie Kitchen The instructions are very clear and easy. But sometimes I just don't have the time to chop the vegetables to make a pretty egg roll so I would make a simple one like cheese egg roll below. It does not take much time and I can multi task a little while the egg is being cooked. Love it!

Ingredients
2 Eggs
1 Slice of cheese
Salt
Pepper
1 Tbsp Water
Spring onions (chopped)

Recipe
1. Crack 2 eggs into a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of water. Season with a little bit of salt and pepper.
2. Oil the saucepan and turn on to medium heat. When the pan is hot, pour the egg evenly and let it cook.
3. When you see the surface is starting to dry, sprinkle some spring onions.
4. Tear the cheese into small pieces and spread them around the surface.(Not too near the edge)
5. Once the egg is almost 90% dry, use the spatula to flip about 1/4 and fold inwards. Let it cook for a little while before proceeding to do another fold.
6. Note it can get a bit messy when the cheese oozes out. Try to be as gentle as possible.
7. When the egg is fully folded, bring the pan near to the plate and let it slide out on the plate. Serve hot!

*You can do it with 3 eggs and it should be easier to fold. I used 2 because my husband and I already had eggs for breakfast! Lol need to watch our egg intake...

Controlling and getting the heat right is the key to getting nice egg rolls. Trial and error on your stove to get the best results!

Minced meat porridge with carrots (shortcut method)

I have a problem with cooking on weekends because my son usually naps at 12 noon and he needs me to nap with him! Which means I have to try my best to stay awake while pretending to sleep and only get up to cook when he falls asleep. So I came out with a lazy way to get out of this situation! There were times I ended up packing lunch from coffeeshop downstairs and regretting because it is too salty/oily for our liking.

Ingredients
Uncooked rice
Minced meat
Carrot
Spring onions (optional for garnish)
Fried garlic (optional)
Soy sauce
Pepper
Sesame oil 

Recipe
1. Wash the uncooked rice and place it in a pot. (Used my tanyu claypot as it retains heat very well)
2. Add water and turn on the heat to cook till it is boiling.
3. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and it is break time! 
***Go and take a break for 1-2 hours***
4. After the break, chop the carrots into thin strips. Prepare the minced meat by seasoning it with sesame oil, soy sauce and pepper.
5. Open the cover and you should see that the rice has softened like teochew porridge texture. Turn on the heat again and put in the carrots strips followed by minced meat.
6. Let it cook for another 10-15 minutes until desired texture.
7. Test the taste and add soy sauce or salt to season if required.
8. Sprinkle with fried garlic and spring onions. Serve hot!

Note: I have tried leaving the porridge in normal pots. It will still work but probably not as well as the claypot. I need to cook the porridge after my nap longer in order to achieve a smoother texture. :)

Chocolate chip cookies

Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies? Although I like to eat cookies, I rarely have cravings and almost never buy cookies. lol The only time I would buy is probably at Subway but those are the soft chewy type of cookies. Today I am sharing this recipe which is probably closer to the crunchy types. The recipe is adapted from Joey Foo's crunchy chocolate chip!

Ingredients
250g Plain flour
160g Unsalted butter
120g Brown sugar
10g Caster sugar
1 Egg
100g Chocolate chips
1/2 tsp Baking soda
4 tsp Baking powder
Pinch of salt

Recipe
1. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degree celcius. Put flour, baking soda and powder and salt in a bowl and whisk to mix well.
2. Cream the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy.
3. Add in the egg and mix well.
4. Add in the flour in batches and ensure the flour is well incorporated. (Avoid overmixing as it will result in tough cookies)
5. Finally mix in the chocolate chips. You can chill the dough in the fridge if you like.  Read Chilling cookie dough for more information)
6. Using two spoons, scoop the cookie dough and place it on the baking tray lined with parchment paper. Use your fingers to gently shape the cookie dough into small mounds. Ensure there are spaces in between as the cookie will spread during the baking process. Alternatively you can use an ice cream scoop. Bake at 160 degree celcius for 15 minutes.

It was my first time making cookies and I must say this is quite straightforward and fun. My son had joined in to watch how the cookies are made. I made him participated in the last step by pouring in the chocolate chips. He loved the cookies and made me bring it to his favourite teachers!

Steamed minced pork with tung choy

I am always very interested in trying out steamed dishes because they are usually easy to prepare and require less monitoring - meaning I can steal some time to wash the dishes and take a peek to see what my son was doing. One recipe I often cooked is Steam minced meat on egg tofu as it is easy and my son loves it. I was googling "steamed minced meat" and one of the blog posts that caught my eye from GoodyFoodies! - Steamed minced pork with tung choy

It is a common home cooked dish but my mum has never really cook this for me. I read that this is more of a Cantonese dish and I am Hainanese/Teochew. That explains why! haha I bought a pack of tung choy from the wet market and quickly got down to making my own version below.

Ingredients
250g Minced meat 
2 Tbsp Tung choy
1/2 tsp Minced garlic
1 dried shiitake mushroom
Cornstarch
Soy sauce
Pepper
Sesame oil
Coriander 

Recipe
1. Soak the dried shiitake mushroom and cut it into slices when it has softened.
2. Soak tung choy in water then rinse it before chopping it into smaller pieces. 
3. To the minced meat, add tung choy, mushrooms, minced garlic and mix well.
4. Add some cornstarch and season with soy sauce and pepper. Mix well using a spoon or if you prefer, using one hand. (I find that using hand is easier.) 
5. Put the meat mixture on a metal plate and spread it out evenly and thinly. Drizzle sesame oil and steam it for about 8 to 10 minutes.
6. Put chopped coriander leaves on top and serve hot.

Pan fried zucchini

Zucchini is not a vegetable that I would usually buy. After I bought it, I did not know what I want to do with it. In the end, I remembered seeing this in Korean drama where they pan fry it as a dish. I was curious how this dish would taste like and so decided to make them.

Ingredients
Zucchini
Flour
Egg
Soy sauce
Vinegar

Recipe
1. Cut zucchini into slices and sprinkle salt on them. Leave it for a few minutes.
2. Pat dry with kitchen towel. Coat them evenly with flour then coat with beaten egg.
3. Put them on the saucepan with low heat and pan fry till they turned nicely brown.
4. Prepare a simple sauce of soy sauce with vinegar for dipping if you like. 

My conclusion: I love the taste! It is slightly crunchy on the outside but softer in the centre. The dipping sauce made it very suitable for a side dish. I actually prepared this in the morning and then just reheat them in oven before serving for dinner. 

Tomato egg drop soup

On most weekdays, I would cook soup using pork ribs or chicken in the slow cooker. Sometimes when I am really busy or tired, then I will go for quick soup recipes like this one I am sharing below - tomato egg drop soup. I am not exactly a tomato lover but this soup tastes really good. Simple and nutritious!  

Ingredients
Tomato
Egg
Bunapi mushrooms
Chopped spring onions (garnish)
Ikan bilis
Soya beans

Recipe
1. Wash the ikan bilis and soya beans and put them into the stock bag.
2. In a pot of boiling water, add the stock bag and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Chop the tomato into cubes and remove the bottom from Bunapi mushrooms. Crack the egg in a bowl, beat it and set aside.
4. After 20 minutes, remove the stock bag from the pot. Add in tomato cubes, mushrooms and let it cook for a few minutes.
5. Taste the soup and season it with salt if you like. Pour in the beaten egg slowly and stir gently in circles using chopsticks.
6. Garnish with chopped spring onions and serve.

Daikon miso soup

White radish is one of my favourite vegetables to use for making Chinese soups. I bought a really big one this week and after cooking Radish soup with Pork ribs, I still have some leftover. I was thinking what can I do with it as I did not want to make the same soup again. So I was on the net again searching for a possible recipe to try - Daikon radish and carrot miso soup. Love the idea of doing miso soup as it is quick and easy! 

Ingredients
White radish
Carrot
Instant dashi
White miso
Chopped spring onions (optional)

Recipe
1. Cut the white radish into long strips.
2. In the pot, add in the white radish, instant dashi and water. Cook till the radish strips are softened. (you can taste the soup and add in more dashi if required at this step)
3. While the radish is being cooked, cut the carrots into strips too. (shorter than the radish)
4. Add the carrot strips to the pot and simmer till soft. Turn off the heat.
5. Add in the miso paste to the taste you required. (I added about 2 tbsp)
6. Sprinkle in the spring onions and serve.

I must say the white radish gives a nice flavour to the miso soup. It tasted different from the miso soup that you get outside - a mild sweet radish taste blending well with the miso. :)

Baked Garlic mayo cod

Came across this simple yet delicious recipe from Wokking mum - baked cod with garlic mayonnaise when she shared her cooking in Facebook. I am very tempted to try out the recipe as it has very simple ingredients that can be easily found at home. Excited to see my family's response to this dish as we usually have steamed cod for dinner.

Ingredients
Cod fillet
pepper
salt 

Garlic mayo
6 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 tsp olive oil
pinch of salt

Recipe
1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degree celcius.
2. Season cod with salt and pepper then place on the baking tray. (skin side down)
3. Chop or blend the garlic till it is paste-like. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
4. Spread the garlic mayo over the cod, covering the surface evenly.
5. Bake for 15 minutes till it is cooked. (Good to check on the cod when it is about 10 minutes to see if it is browning well)

My husband and son's verdict for this dish: Yummy, very good! As a mummy, I am super happy to find this recipe. Definitely one recipe that you can do for after-work dinners! ^^b

Note: As a variation, I was thinking next time I could add some chilli sauce to turn it into spicy mayo then I will get the husband to taste test! :)

Thai Turmeric chicken

When I started on my cooking adventure, I tend to buy some ingredients that are necessary for some dishes but not regularly used in my daily cooking. One of these items sitting in my kitchen is turmeric powder. I faintly remembered I bought one bottle of turmeric powder when I wanted to make butter rice. To make better use of my turmeric powder, I came across this recipe in Serious eats - Grilled Thai Turmeric chicken and quickly got down to doing it on the same day. I skipped some ingredients like cilantro stems, coriander seeds which I do not have on hand in my kitchen. The beauty of home cooking is you do not have to necessarily follow so strictly to the recipes!

Ingredients
2 large chicken legs (skin on)
1/2 tsp white pepper
4 large cloves of garlic
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp brown sugar  

Recipe
1. Pound the garlic into a paste using a food processor.
2. Put all the marinate ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
3. Coat chicken legs with the marinate well and refrigerate for at least 1 to 2 hours. (I marinated mine for 6 hrs)
4. Bake in pre-heated oven at 200 degree celcius for 40 minutes. Turn the chicken in between the baking to get it cooked evenly. (Alternatively you can grill it.)
5. Remove from oven and serve. 

Rice cooker Kamameshi

Kamameshi (釜飯) literally translates to "kettle rice" and it is cooked in an iron pot called "kama". I remembered whenever I order this from Japanese restaurants, they would bring the whole iron pot to you and asked you to wait for 20 minutes when it is being cooked. When you opened the lid, it really smells heavenly. (I am a rice lover!) I have tried salmon and scallop kamameshi and loved the flavoured rice. 

Chicken Kamameshi - I referenced from this blog Oggi when I was searching for a rice cooker version of kamameshi. Never mind about the iron pot, I was so excited to try out the recipe!

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup Jasmine rice 
1 section of carrot (diced) 
1/2 pack of Bunashimeiji mushrooms (diced) 
1/2 onion (diced) 
2 cloves garlic (minced) 
1 tbsp soy sauce 
1 cup chicken broth (about 250ml) 
1 tbsp sugar 
1 teaspoon salt 
50ml water 

Recipe
1. Wash and drain the rice. Set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Mix the last 4 ingredients together. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking. 
3. Put the rice and vegetables into the rice cooker. 
4. Add in the seasoning and 50ml water.  
5. Cook in the rice cooker till it is done. Stir evenly and serve. 

Love the mild soy sauce fragrance on the rice and the texture of the rice came out fantastic. I omitted sake so that my son could take it. Good opportunity for me to slip in lots of vegetables for him too. ^^

Banana walnut cupcake

Okie here it goes, another banana recipe because I baked twice this week! With the remaining bananas I had, I wanted to try out another recipe that I saw online which looks tempting to me - Banana Walnut Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

 Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (I reduced to 1/8 tsp) 
2 bananas (mashed)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (about 113g)
3/4 cup walnuts (cut into small pieces)
1/4 vanilla yoghurt (I used plain yoghurt)

Recipe
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree celcius.
2. Cream the butter and sugar. (To use softened butter and after creaming, you should not see the sugar.)
3. Sieve the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
4. Add in the mashed bananas. Mix well before adding in eggs and vanilla essence.
5. Add in the flour, baking soda and salt.
6. Stir in the yoghurt and mix the walnut into the batter.
7. Scoop the batter into 12 cupcake paper. It should be about 80% filled.
8. Bake for 20 minutes.

I skipped the frosting as I preferred to just eat the cupcakes. Gave some to my colleagues and the general feedback is nice but too sweet. Maybe it would be good to reduce the sugar by a little or fully replace the sugar with just brown sugar. Unlike the previous recipe, I feel that this cupcake is denser and more moist. Still it is quite tasty. :)

Banana cake

My mum has given me a bunch of bananas to eat but I made them into cake instead. I love banana cakes more than banana itself. My first attempt baking banana cake in rice cooker made me fall in love with the lovely banana smell during baking. Being new to baking, I seldom venture into the different cakes but always ended up baking banana cakes. (maybe also due to my mum keep passing me bananas!)

In this post, I would to share this Soft & Fluffy Banana Cake recipe by MiMi Bakery House. This was the second recipe I came across after trying the famous online rice cooker recipe. As what MiMi Bakery House describes, this is really soft and fluffy. Definitely a keeper!

Ingredients
3 Eggs
125g Sugar
200g Banana (mashed)
150g Plain flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
100g Oil 

Recipe
1. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degree celcius.
2. Grease and line an 8 inch round tin. (I used 2 disposable rectangular aluminum trays)
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder and baking soda together and set aside.
4. Whisk eggs, sugar and banana at maximum speed till stiff/ribbon stage. (I whisked using a hand mixer at speed 4 and it took me about 10 minutes! Have to be really patient to wait till the stiff stage.)
5. Fold in the flour and mix well. (I did it in batches so that it can be well incorporated.)
6. Add in the oil and mix well to get shiny and flowy batter. (Better to add in batches too for this.)
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Japanese hamburger steak (hambagu)

One of my favourite Japanese dish is the hamburger steak otherwise known as hambagu. Our recent trip to Tokyo, my son had it quite frequently as this is a common dish for kids' meal.

I had adapted my recipe from Just one cookbook - Hamburger steak / Hambagu. Loves reading from Just one cookbook for inspiration to cook Japanese cuisines. Namiko makes everything seemed so easy! 

Ingredients
220g Minced pork 
1 small onion
1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
2 tbsp milk
1 egg
Fine black pepper
Salt 

Sauce
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp Ketchup
5 tbsp Water

Recipe
1. Chop the small onion into half. One half is to be chopped into finely. The other half is to chop into slices (for the sauce).
2. Add finely chopped onions into the minced meat, followed by egg, milk and panko. Season it with black pepper and salt. Use one hand to mix the mixture well.
3. Divide the meat mixture into 4 portions and toss one at a time from right hand to left hand a few times to release air.
4. Heat some oil in the pan on medium heat and place the patties into the pan. Let it cook uncovered for 4 minutes. When it is nicely browned, flip them over to the other side.
5. Add a few tbsp of water to the pan and then cover it. Let it cook for another 5 minutes. When it is browned, remove to put on the serving plates.
6. In the same pan, add some oil and put in the sliced onions. Cook till translucent.
7. Add in the sauce and let it boil before reduce heat to let it simmer. Once it has thickened, you can turn off the heat and pour the sauce on the patties.
8. You can steam some broccoli and carrots to serve along. Add a sunny side up like mine and a simple dinner is done!

I have made this hambagu in 30 minutes after coming home from work. Hence, the steps are a lot simplified from Namiko's recipe. Red wine is also omitted as I served this to my son. However it is still quite tasty for me. Feeling happy my first attempt went well. :)

Pumpkin pork ribs soup with shiitake mushrooms

I have never really eaten pumpkin as a child. Somehow I do not recall my mum cooking pumpkin at all. I only remembered the sinful stuffs like chicken wings and curry etc. Yet when my son started taking solids, I was told that pumpkin is good. We gave him pumpkin porridge then slowly I incorporated pumpkin into our weekly soup menu. Here is one really simple yet tasty soup to share.

Ingredients
300g Pumpkin
4 Dried Shiitake mushrooms
250g Pork ribs
Salt

Recipe
1. Soak the dried mushrooms in water till softened. Discard the water.
2. Cut the pumpkin into big chucks and remove the skin. (You can leave the skin on if you wash it really clean)  Don't cut it too small as it will soften and disintegrate easily after cooking.

3. Wash the pork ribs and blanch it in boiling water for a few minutes till the scum is floating. Remove the scum and rinse the pork ribs again. This is to produce a clear soup.
4. Place the mushrooms, pumpkin and pork ribs into slow cooker and add hot water to cover the ingredients and turn the knob to auto-mode. I leave it in auto-mode when I go for work. After I come home, I would season with a little salt before serving.
*5. Alternatively, you can place all the ingredients in the pot and add water and cook till it is boiling. Reduce the fire and allow it to simmer for about 1-2 hours. Only season with salt before serving.

I love the taste of this soup as you can get the mushroom fragrance and the sweetness of pumpkin in a bowl. You can also make a few variations with pumpkins. Sometimes I would cook with just pumpkin and add some red dates. Or you can add apples to make apple pumpkin soup which is really sweet. Enjoy!