Food experiments from my little kitchen

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...

I always have the impression that char siew is difficult to make at home until I see many mummies actually make them at home. My recipe below is adapted from My Mind Patch - Rice Cooker Char Siew . I did not use the rice cooker as my rice cooker is used to cook rice. Also, omitted the wine part for my toddler son.   Ingredients About 450g Pork Shoulder 2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce (Lee Kum Kee) 2 Tbsp Oyster sauce 2 tsp Sesame oil 1/4 tsp Dark Soya sauce  1 Tbsp white sugar 1 Tbsp brown sugar 1 Tbsp honey 1 clove chopped garlic 100ml water Recipe 1. Put all the marinade ingredients together and mix well. 2. Cut the pork shoulder into thick long slices and place them in a ziplock bag or container. 3. Add in the marinade and leave it in the fridge for at least 4 hours or even overnight. 4. After marinating, pour everything into a wok and slowly cook the meat for 20 minutes till the sauce starts to dry up. Stir the meat and sauce from time to time during the...

My son loves to eat mushrooms particularly bunashimeiji mushrooms. You can get it from the supermarket either the white ones or the brown ones. Usually I would add them to the vegetables and stir fry or sometimes chop them up and add into the omelette. One day I chanced upon this blog entry from Just one cook book - seared scallops and decided to try making a similar sauce and cooking just the mushrooms itself. While cooking, I was wondering how would the taste turn out to be but luckily it is approved by both husband and son. Hence, decided to share this recipe on my blog. ^^ Ingredients Bunashimeiji mushrooms Shallots Garlic  Butter Soy sauce Some stock or water Cornstarch solution  Recipe 1. Cut off the bottom part of the mushrooms and discard. Chop some garlic and shallot to set aside. Reason why I had shallots is because I happened to have some chopped ones in my fridge. It can be replaced by onion. 2. Add some butter to the pan and heat till it melt....

Recently I went out for dinner and ordered silver fish fried rice but it was served a tiny portion on the fried rice. I wished I could refill the silver fish. Haha So I bought a packet of dried silver fish from the supermarket under dried goods section and decided to try making it! I am so glad my first attempt worked out well. Ingredient Dried silver fish Recipe 1. Soak the dried silver fish in water for a few minutes and drain the water. Repeat this step again if you wish to reduce the saltiness. 2. Transfer to a dry dish and pat off the moisture using kitchen towel. Don't have to dry thoroughly just remove most of the moisture. 3. Heat up oil in the pot using medium flame. I used just enough oil to cover a layer of silver fish. Check if the oil is hot enough. I test the temperature by dropping one small fish in. If it is sizzling, then the oil is ready. 4. Put all the silver fish into the pot to fry. The fry process is about 5 minutes or so. You will see the oil si...

Salmon is one of our favourite fish. It is packed with healthy omega-3 and does not have a fishy smell. For me, I like it as it is easy to prepare for cooking too. On busy days I would either steam it in soy sauce or pop into the oven with some herbs. This time I tried to pan fry it with very simple seasonings and it turned out to be quite nice too. I was inspired by a bento set with "salmon shioyaki" that I ate a few weeks ago. Delicious food does not have to be complicated! :) Tip: You can click this video to check out how to pan fry salmon!  Gordon Ramsay's Crispy Salmon Ingredients Salmon Lemon Salt Pepper Spring onions (optional) Recipe 1. Turn the salmon skin side up and make 2 cuts along the length. This is to allow the heat to distribute better and stop the salmon from curling up when you put it on the pan. Season the salmon with salt and pepper. 2. Heat a little oil in the pan and place the salmon skin side down. Let it cook for at least 4-5 minut...

This is one of my favourite childhood dish. I love the smell when my mum cooks this in the kitchen. Very simple yet appetizing to go with rice or porridge. Ingredients Minced meat 2-3 eggs Soy sauce Pepper Fish sauce (optional) Recipe 1. Marinate minced meat with some soy sauce and pepper. 2. Crack 2-3 eggs in a bowl and beat them till well combined with a fork. You can add a little soy sauce and fish sauce in the eggs. I noticed that adding fish sauce makes it quite salty so you can skip this if you prefer less salty. 3. Heat some oil in the pan and add in the marinated minced meat. Cook till it is brown and remove to set aside. 4. Using the same pan, pour in the eggs and cook it under medium fire. After a few minutes, you will see the surface of the eggs bubbling a little and drying up, pour back the minced meat onto the eggs. 5. Try to lift the edge of the egg with your spatula. If it comes up easily and is browning at the side, you can flip it up to cover and mak...