Food experiments from my little kitchen

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 oni...

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 par...

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 f...

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...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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...

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 abov...

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.

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...

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...

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 cou...

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 lik...

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 ...

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 yiel...

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 servi...

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 i...

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 tran...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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 di...

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 p...

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 ...

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 Chil...

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. ...

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. 

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 onio...

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. ...

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! A...

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. C...

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 las...

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. I...

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 ...

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 f...

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...