Adventures in the kitchen

Pretty moulded rice

2012-01-24T10:14:00.004+08:00

We used salmon fish floss as the hair and Meimei wanted to use the remaining floss to decorate around the face.

Emperor Herbs Chicken

2012-01-19T08:23:00.004+08:00

This is a 'healthy' dish considering it's steamed until fully cooked. I used 4 chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken.

The plastic wrapper and aluminium foil come together with the seasoning in the pack. It does take a while to clean the chicken, plus I have the habit of removing as much of the visible fats as possible. And also to ensure there's sufficient water in the pot while the chicken cooks. Other than these, it's a simple dish to cook.

Pancakes

2012-01-17T01:45:00.001+08:00

I've been trying to make pretty pancakes with the moulds that I bought, without much success. Decided to give it another try, and this time I coated the moulds with cooking spray. It was definitely much better because the batter doesn't stick to the mould and I could almost easily remove the pancakes. But I've poured too much batter and the pancakes turned out too thick. So, I must remember to only use the 1/4 cup to scoop the batter and pour into the mould.

And this is a good pancake recipe that I've found online. I made plain pancakes instead; and the kids liked it. I increased the sugar by 1/2 tbsp and added 1 tsp of vanilla essence (though I think it didn't make much of a difference, so I will skip it the next time).

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour
3 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
3 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

Method

1. Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder. Make a well in the centre and add the egg. Whisk the egg to break it up.

2. Add the milk. Mix the dry ingredients slowly with the milk and egg, by 'taking' the dry ingredients from the 'walls'. Keep stirring until everything is well-mixed.

3. Pour in the melted butter and stir until well mixed. Let the batter rest for about 10-15 minutes before frying. (I made use of this time to prepare the frying pan, moulds and plates)

4. Heat the pan and add a little bit of butter to 'oil' the pan. When the pan is hot enough, place the mould on the pan and pour the batter. Remove the mould when the sides are firm enough and does not flow when the mould is removed.

The perfect batter

2012-01-14T04:32:00.003+08:00

I remember eating the sweet-and-sour sausages my mother cooked for us when we were kids. Each piece of sausage was perfectly coated with a batter. Even the batter tasted great on its own.

And I tried this afternoon at snack-time for the kids. I should be quite close because the batter tasted good enough on its good although the taste can be further improved. The kids didn't like the sausages though; not so much because of the batter but the sausages itself.

This is definitely not the perfect batter because the sausages were not coated all around. Maybe it's because of the batter; maybe it's because of the insufficient oil. I shall try again next time.

Ingredients

plain flour
water
salt
pepper
baking powder
oil for frying

Potato patties

2012-01-12T09:30:00.004+08:00

Ingredients

200g potato, boiled
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp tumeric powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
dash of pepper
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cornflour
oil for frying

Method

1. Mash the boiled potatoes. (no need to mash until very fine).
2. Add everything to the mashed potatoes and stir to mix well.
3. Scoop portions of the potato and shape into balls, then flatten them.
4. Fry in the heated oil until slightly browned. Remove and drain. Serve well.

**Note
I used 1 1/4 tsp of salt and the patties turned out too salty. And if I attempt this again, I must remember to dip the patties into a lightly beaten agg before frying. And perhaps add in some finely chopped carrots too.

Chicken soup with rice

2012-01-12T08:55:00.001+08:00

Meimei learnt a song from school last semester - Chicken soup with rice. Initially I wanted to steam the Emperor's Chicken (with the ready-made sauce) but I don't have the tray/plate. So, the chicken was used to make the chicken soup instead.

I was trying to get a colour and taste similar to soto ayam since I don't have quite a number of the ingredients. But the soup turned out quite good.

The kids' soup is clearer because I strained the chopped garlic and onion. It's still the same soup, just strained prior to serving.

Ingredients

1 litre chicken stock (I boiled 2 chicken thighs. Removed when they're cooked and removed the meat. Then put the bones back in to boil. Added 6 slices of ginger.)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp tumeric powder
lettuce

Method

1. Heat up the chicken stock. Season according to your preference.
2. Add the chicken meat and lettuce.
3. Serve warm.

Katsudon

2012-01-11T09:29:00.003+08:00

Following a recommendation from a friend, I followed a recipe from a blog and attempted to cook Katsudon for dinner. I didn't follow the recipe exactly; I omitted the cooking wine in the seasoning and chicken stock for the sauce, and the onions were left out for the sauce as well.

The picture doesn't look that good. It's quite a tasty dish; the sauce is not overly salty. The slices of pork cutlets tasted great with Thai sweet chilli sauce too.

Ingredients

10 pieces of pork loin (I sliced mine into 2 slices from each piece because the pork loins were rather thick)
garlic & parsley flavoured breadcrumbs
oil for deep frying

Seasoning

1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp cornflour
dash of white pepper
1 egg

Sauce

100 ml water
2 tsp of salt
1 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp castor sugar
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten

Method

1. Hit the meat with the back of the knife to tenderise it. Season the meat with the sesame oil, light soy sauce, cornflour, pepper. Set aside in the fridge.

2. Remove the pork from the fridge and add the egg, prior to frying. Prepare the breadcrumbs.

3. Coat each piece with the breadcrumbs. Heat up the oil for deep frying.

4. Fry until golden brown. When the pieces are thinner, the cooking time is shortened quite a fair bit. Remove and drain. Cut into slices when the cutlets have cooled down. Set aside until ready to serve.

5. Prepare the sauce by mixing everything (for the sauce) except the eggs.

6. Bring the mixture to a boil. Place the sliced pork cutlets in the sauce. Slowly add in the eggs around the pork cutlets. Simmer until the eggs are fully cooked.

7. Remove from heat. Serve the pork cutlets with the sauce over freshly cooked jasmine rice. Serve immediately.

Udon in satay sauce

2011-12-29T05:11:00.006+08:00

So, we tried something new again today. The kids like satay sauce, especially Didi because this is one of the spicy dishes that he can stomach without drinking too much water. I added more water to the readymade paste to make it less spicy and more soupy for the udon noodles.

Ingredients

udon noodles, boiled prior to mixing with satay sauce
sliced pork
readymade satay sauce, mixed with water (amount depends on how spicy and soupy you like)

Method

1. Fry the pork slices until completely dry. Add the satay sauce (mixed with water) and let it boil. Turn off the heat.

2. Boil the udon noodles and drain once it's soft. Scoop into serving bowls.

3. Pour the sauce over the noodles and serve fresh.

Fried noodles

2011-12-28T02:19:00.005+08:00

This may seem like a simple dish to prepare. It's actually quite a challenge not to overcook the noodles and at the same time, achieve the right balance of saltiness and sweetness.

To avoid overcooking the noodles, I cooked the meat and eggs separately. Then I boiled the noodles for about 1 minute, basically to separate them. Then combine them again, after adding the seasoning for the noodles. It actually turned out quite yummy.

Ingredients

chicken meat, cut into bite size
eggs, slightly beaten
2 3/4 pieces of egg noodles (diameter approximately 8.5cm, 100g each piece)

Seasoning for the noodles

3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 1/2 to 3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
dash of white pepper
sesame oil

Method

1. Prepare the seasoning, stir and set aside.
2. Fry the meat and eggs separately. Set aside.
3. Boil water and cook the noodles until it's about half cooked. Drain.
4. Heat up the pan, add sesame oil before adding the noodles. Using a pair of chopsticks, mix the noodles with the sesame oil. Then add the seasoning and mix well, ensuring all the noodles are coated with the seasoning. Add the meat and eggs.
5. Once the noodles are fully cooked, remove from heat and serve fresh.

Pineapple tarts (cheat version)

2011-12-27T08:51:00.008+08:00

I was on the lookout for easy to prepare pineapple jam. Saw this recipe and followed it but I skipped the step of squeezing the juice from the 'blended' pineapple paste. The outcome is that my pineapple jam is still too wet even after a day in the fridge.

Overall, the tarts are not too bad. Not overly sweet and the pastry is crunchy (because I didn't want to do the rubbing-in method). I use the recipe from the class I attended a few years back; instead of using top flour I used plain flour. I made almost 70 tarts and there's still jam and dough left in the fridge.

The open-face tarts

Golfball tarts

Potato Fritters

2011-12-25T08:32:00.003+08:00

Saw something similar to this while surfing the web and thought it'll be a dish/snack that the kids will enjoy.

Ingredients

potato, cut into very thin slices
onions, chopped finely
plain flour
a dash of baking powder
salt
dash of white pepper, black pepper and sugar
water
oil

Method

1. Mix everything, except the potato, in a bowl. Stir well until a paste-like solution is formed.

2. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the potato to the paste-like solution and mix well.

3. Scoop small portions of the solution and potato and 'pour' into the oil. Fry until both sides are golden brown. Drain and serve immediately, if possible.

Mee Hoon Kuay (Handmade noodles)

2011-12-23T23:22:00.008+08:00

Made the kids knead the dough and hoping that they'll eat their own 'hard work' during dinner. The kids started with much enthusiasm and this wore off after less than 10 minutes into kneading the dough. I had to take over and finish kneading.

When it was time to eat their 'noodles', Didi ate more than Meimei. Meimei said she doesn't like it though she loves the ban mian in Singapore.

The recipe (from here) states to use 300g of all purpose flour, I ended up using much more. I had to add flour continuously because the dough was just too sticky to work with.

Ingredients

300g all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
160ml water (2/3 cup)

(Satay) beef

2011-12-21T07:04:00.005+08:00

We don't have a grill at home to prepare satay and I don't think it's safe to place satay sticks in the oven. So, this is our 'satay' without the sticks; served with ready-made satay sauce.

Ingredients
approx 350g minced beef
3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp paprika powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
pinch of salt, dash of black pepper and sprinkle of salt

Method
1. Season the beef with all the seasoning. Shape into oblong (or any shape you prefer).

2. Place on baking tray. I can't find baking paper in the supermarkets here. Found this useful method for baking without the meat sticking to the tray after baking - Spread lemon juice over the whole tray. Place the meat and bake as per normal. The juice won't affect the taste of the meat and it's easier to wash the tray as well.

3. Bake at preheated oven 200 deg C, for 10 minutes. (I switched off the oven but left the meat in the oven for an additional 2 minutes to make sure that they're fully cooked.)

4. Heat the ready made satay sauce (I added a little bit of water) in the microwave oven and serve with the beef.

Crispy sweet chicken (cheat version)

2011-12-21T06:18:00.003+08:00

It takes too much effort to prepare the Crispy sweet/chilli beef. Since the kids like it, I must find a faster way to prepare. Instead of using beef today, I used chicken and here's presenting the cheat version!

As with most dishes that I whip up nowadays, it's more on estimation though I'll try my best to give a close estimate.

Ingredient

chicken, cut into bite size - seasoned with some light soy sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/3 lemon, juiced
cornflour
oil

Method

1. Coat the chicken pieces with cornflour. Heat up the oil. Fry until crispy. Drain and set aside. Pour the oil away.

2. Mix the soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice and chilli powder. Heat the solution in the pan. When it starts to bubble, add in the fried chicken pieces. Mix well and serve fresh.

Curry-spiced sausage buns

2011-12-20T06:22:00.006+08:00

This recipe is from Gina's blog. I attended her class on how to make pineapple tarts a few years ago. Her recipes are reliable and tasty. So, I followed her recipe according and got the kids to help out in the 'wrapping' and 'glazing' stages. After the buns were baked, I think it would have been better to use an egg to glaze the buns instead of using melted butter. Taste-wise, it's yummy as the bread itself is sweet and has a hint of curry in it.

Wrapping the sausages with the dough

Glazing with melted butter

Baked!

Ingredients

500g plain flour
270ml water
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
100g castor sugar
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp curry powder
30g melted butter (salted) for glazing --> I would use egg to glaze the next time

Method

1. Mix the curry powder, flour yeast, salt and castor sugar into the mixing bowl. Slowly add in water and using the mixer, mix at low speed for 30 min. Let the machine knead the dough. I didn't add the water slowly and had to knead by hand. I only kneaded the dough until it looked like it's done. Definitely not more than 10 minutes.

2. Add melted butter and knead until evenly mixed.

3. Remove dough and place in a greased bowl. Cover with a wet cloth and place in a warm place to let it proof. This takes about 1 hour. I left the dough in the mixing bowl instead.

4. Shape dough into 50g balls. Flatten each ball and add fillings. I just tell the kids to pinch off balls of dough and wrap the sausages with each small ball of dough.

5. Brush with melted butter and let the buns proof for another 10 minutes.

6. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg C for 20 minutes. Mine took about 15 minutes since they're smaller.

7. Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Crispy sweet beef

2011-12-19T10:20:00.003+08:00

This was supposed to be 'Crispy chilli beef' but it turned out to be so sweet instead. The kids loved this sweet version and Didi awarded me 100 points and Meimei gave me a trillion thousand hundred points, out of 10! hahahha....Didi went on to declare that 'Mummy is THE best chef'.

Somehow, the mix of ingredients ended up giving this dish a taste rather similar to the sweet and sour sauce. The beef was fried until it's crispy but it also made the kitchen very oily. I wouldn't mind cooking this again if I can somehow reduce the oiliness from the frying.

The recipe was adapted from the 'BBC goodfood website' that I've linked in my attempt at cooking the Creamy masala chicken.

Ingredients

Oil, for frying
300g beef, cut into thin strips and tossed with 3 tbsp cornflour
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
5cm ginger, sliced into strips (I cut it thicker so that the kids can still see it and not end up eating them)
2 1/2 tsp chilli powder
4 tbsp soy sauce, mixed with 4 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/3 lemon, juiced

Method

1. Heat sufficient amount of oil for deep frying the beef strips, until very hot. Fry the beef in batches until they turn dark and crispy. Remove and leave them aside.

2. Pour off most of the oil. Stir fry the garlic, ginger, chilli powder for a short while (about 1 min).

3. Add the sweetened soy sauce and lemon juice, cook for about 2 min. Toss in the fried beef strips and serve fresh.

**For the spicy version, reduce the amount of sugar to probably about half the stated amount. At the same time, reduce the amount of chilli powder as well to probably about 1 1/2 tsp.

Creamy Masala Chicken (served with basmatic rice)

2011-12-18T08:24:00.001+08:00

With no good Indian resturants here, I have to try and cook Indian dishes. Found a website that has quite a good selection of recipes of various cuisines. I'm probably be checking it often for updates.

The kids loved the chicken masala in Doha and I thought it'll be a surprise for them if I manage to cook the dish. I had to add quite a few other spices to make the dish tastier; it was too creamy for me. Didi liked the dish, especially dipping the bread in it. Meimei only liked the chicken pieces and not the sauce. I might cook this again, but probably not so soon.

Ingredient

approx. 250g chicken meat (inner fillet), cut into bite size
5 slices of ginger, cut into halves
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1 onion, chopped finely
2 tsp cayenne powder (original recipe uses chilli powder and I don't have it at home)
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
dash of white pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
200cm3 double cream
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tsp lemon juice

the original recipe also uses juice of 1 lime, 1 red chilli and 2 tbsp fresh coriander which I've omitted

Method

1. Mix the chicken, ginger, garlic, cayenne powder (1 1/2 tsp) and 1 tbsp of oil on a bowl. Stir and mix well, then set aside.

2. Heat the pan and add the marinated chicken. Fry until the meat is dry, stirring occasionally. Remove from fire when done.

3. Heat the remaining oil in the same pan. Fry the onions until soft and fragrant. Add the turmeric powder and stir for 1 minute. Lower the heat and pour in the cream and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

4. Add the chicken and simmer to let the chicken absorb the flavours. Season with the curry powder, remaining cayenne powder, salt, sugar, pepper and lemon juice. (Add more of each spice according to your preference). Serve hot.

Milanesa and black pepper sauce

2011-12-15T08:47:00.008+08:00

This is a common dish in Argentina. It's a thin slice of seasoned meat, coated with breadcrumbs and fried before serving. The kids love to eat this at the foodcourt near the hotel where we stayed.

I bought the seasoned breadcrumbs from the supermarket and I'm very sure that when I took it, I saw it as aji and something else. When I took the packet out this evening, I was surprised to see that it wasn't aji. Instead it was ajo. So instead of 'chili', I bought the 'garlic'-flavoured breadcrumbs. Thank goodness, it turned out yummy and the kids loved it. And I couldn't taste the garlic or parsely taste at all!

I also tried to make my own black pepper sauce because I didn't want to buy the almost expired bottle from a supermarket in Chinatown. The milanesa dish was a back up in case the black pepper sauce failed. Meimei refused to try the sauce; Didi was game but it was a little too peppery for him. Personally, I find it too sour because I added too much lemon. Grinding the black pepper is too much work, next time I shall just buy the grinded black pepper for cooking instead.

The seasoned breadcrumbs

The mini milanesa

I cut the original slice of beef into 3 portions. It costed only about $30 peso (approx S$10) for 500gm of beef.

Ingredients

thinly sliced beef
salt and white pepper
egg white
oil
seasoned breadcrumbs

Method

1. Seasoned the beef with some salt and pepper.
2. Coat the beef with the egg white, then the breadcrumbs. (Use one hand for each so that you don't end up with clumps in the breadcrumbs.)
3. Heat up the oil. Put the coated slices in and fry. The oil should be at the temperature such that the breadcrumbs won't burn and the beef will still become fully cooked.
4. Remove when the crumbs turn golden brown and the beef is thoroughly cooked. Serve warm.

Beef slices with homemade black pepper sauce

Ingredients

1/4 lemon, squeezed (I used 1/2 lemon and it was too too sour)
salt, black pepper and sugar
water
cornflour
beef slices (seasoned with some salt and white pepper)
garlic, finely chopped

Method

1. Mix the lemon juice, salt, black pepper (lots of it), sugar and water together.
2. Heat up a little bit of oil. Stir fry the garlic for a while. Add the beef slices. Fry until there's no more 'juice'.
3. Add the black pepper mixture. Once it boils, taste the sauce and add more pepper/salt/sugar until you're satisfied.
4. Add the cornflour (mixed with cold water) to thicken the sauce. Serve fresh.

Coconut rice

2011-12-14T08:31:00.006+08:00

It is really just coconut with rice; not the nasi lemak because I didn't use the other ingredients from the various recipes that I found on the web. Plus I haven't seen pandan leaves in the supermarkets here, so we'll just have to make do without them.

I fried some egg omelettes, chicken curry (kids' version) and the local luncheon meat (beef and it's not good at all) and sausages. To my surprise, the kids like the rice although I feel that it's not fragrant at all.

Sticky coconut rice

Ingredients

2 cups rice (I used the Jap type which made the end product a little sticky)
1 1/4 cup coconut milk
2 cups water
4 slices of ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Put all the ingredients except the rice into the rice cooker and let it boil.
2. Add rice and cook until done. I did mine twice cos it didn't look fully cooked the first time round.

Chicken curry (kids' version)

Ingredients

chicken meat, cut into bite size
2 tsp curry powder (approx)
1 tsp salt (approx)
pepper
oil
water

Method

1. Season the chicken meat with some salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Mix the curry powder, salt with the water. Mix well.
3. Heat up a little bit of oil and fry the chicken meat until there's no more 'juice'.
4. Add the curry water mixture, stir and let it boil. Add more powder or salt to your preference. Remove from fire and serve warm.

The yucky luncheon meat, and the sausages

Omelettes

Noodles soup & Fried bread

2011-12-12T02:19:00.006+08:00

Noodles soup

Ingredients
Eggs
thinly sliced pork
vegetables (I used frozen spinach)
water
noodles
seasoning - salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper, pinch of sugar

Method

1. Heat some sesame oil. When it's heated, add the eggs and fry. Add water when the eggs are almost fully cooked.

2. Add the pork when the water boils. Add the frozen spinach when the water boils again (after the pork slices are added).

3. Rinse the noodles in hot water, before adding only the noodles to the soup.

4. Season the soup to your liking. Serve hot.

Fried bread

Ingredients
Minced meat (I used pork)
seasoning - sesame oil, soy sauce, pinch of sugar
Bread, cut into quarters
Oil, for frying

Method
1. Season the meat and set aside.
2. Heat up the oil for frying. (the original recipe states to deep fry but I didn't want to use so much oil. So, mine was semi-deep fried)
3. While waiting for the oil to heat up, quickly scoop small portions of the meat on the bread.
4. Place the pieces of bread (with meat) carefully into the heated oil. Turn them occasionally to ensure equal browning. I think mine was too friedRemove once the meat is fully cooked. Serve warm.

Kway Chap

2011-12-08T21:05:00.006+08:00

I bought some kway-tiao and tau pok from Chinatown and wanted to try making a soup base using the seasoning for braised pork. Wanting to make the soup more peppery, I added white pepper seeds into the soup. BUT I didn't smash them prior to adding to the soup, so there's no peppery taste. Now I know I'll need to smash them to 'release' the taste.

The kway-tiao is thicker and more chewy. Personally, I prefer the thinner and smoother kway-tiao that we are used to in Singapore.

Dishes in a jiffy

2011-12-06T09:24:00.003+08:00

Sausages & mixed vegetables in sweet and sour sauce

Method

1. Mix some ketchup, chilli sauce, pepper and water. Set aside. (This is the lazy version. If you want the 'real' sauce, you'll need to add other pastes.)
2. Stir fry the sliced sausages until a little brown. Scoop out and set aside.
3. Stir fry the mixed veg and then add the sauce. Once the sauce starts to bubble, add the sausages and mix. Remove and heat. Serve fresh.

Chicken pieces in satay sauce

Method
1. Cut the chicken into bite sizes. Season with a little soy sauce, pepper.
2. Heat up a little bit of oil. (It would be much tastier if you add diced garlic and onions) Stir fry the chicken pieces until totally dry.
3. Add the ready-made satay sauce and some water. If it's too watery, add some cornflour to thicken the sauce. Remove from heat once the sauce starts to bubble.

(Side note: This satay sauce is quite tasty. Can consider making satay beehoon with it since we definitely won't be able to find such a dish in any restaurants here.)

Leftover fillings

2011-12-01T08:52:00.001+08:00

It's such a waste to throw food away, so I made these using the the leftover fillings from the curry puffs.

Method

1. Mould the fillings into little balls, by hand.
2. Dip into an egg (beaten).
3. Coat with breadcrumbs. I used the Japanese breadcrumbs.
4. Heat up the oil. Gently place/slide the balls into the oil and fry until golden brown. Scoop and serve warm.

Curry puffs (again)

2011-12-01T08:51:00.004+08:00

This time round, we used the ready-made pastry from the supermarket and the filling was curry minced beef and diced potatoes.

The pastry was much easier for the kids to handle and they could make prettier curry puffs.

Curry puffs and curry bombs

2011-11-25T09:07:00.005+08:00

It's the long weekend for the kids. To keep them occupied, we did curry puffs together. It's like playing with playdoh for them. After making just 2 proper puffs each, they decided to be more adventurous and used the dough to make all kinds of weird shapes. But most didn't come out as well as the ball which we named 'curry bombs'.

I did the fillings in the laziest method possible. There is only potato and I used curry powder mixed with water to cook the potatoes. While letting it cool, I prepared the dough. And everything was by estimation.

Ingredients

Fillings
curry powder, mixed with water to get a watery base
salt
sugar
dash of black pepper
finely chopped garlic and onions
oil
potatoe, diced

Dough
plain flour
water
dash of salt and sugar

Method
1. Heat up the oil. Fry the onions until fragrant, then add the garlic. Stir fry for a while before adding the potatoes.
2. Add the watery curry mixture. Stir until the potato are cooked and the water has evaporated. Scoop onto a plate and let the fillings cool.
3. Mix the flour, dash of salt and sugar, with cool water. Knead until the dough becomes pliable.
4. Pinch out small balls of dough and work on a floured surface. Flatten and stretch the dough into a small circle, place small portions of the cooked fillings in the centre. 'Close' the dough and use a fork to create patterns on the edge of the puff.
5. Heat up oil and when it's hot enough, place the puffs in oil to fry. They should be cooked when the surface becomes golden brown.
6. Remove from oil and serve the puffs warm.

Quail egg wrapped in minced beef

2011-11-24T09:33:00.002+08:00

This is something my mother used to prepare for parties - quail eggs wrapped in minced meat. I couldn't find minced pork and since beef is cheaper here, I did my version with minced beef.

It's really simple to prepare; but you would have to be ready to wipe up the oil in the kitchen after frying.

Didi wanted to be the model, holding the meatball in his hand

Ingredients
Quail eggs, boiled and remove the eggshells
minced beef
seasonings - salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, pinch of sugar, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped onions
egg, depends on how much meat you're using. I used only egg white because I happened to have 1 egg white left in the fridge from making cookies for the kids
oil, for deep frying

* I'm sure the meatballs would have tasted much better if I had added breadcrumbs

Method

1. Season the minced beef, add the garlic, egg and leave aside in the fridge.

2. Heat oil. Wrap the eggs with the beef. Make sure it's completely wrapped up and not too thin/thick. If it's too thin, the meat will 'shrink' and the egg will be exposed. If it's too thick, it might take longer to cook the meat on the 'inside'.

3. When the oil is hot enough, place the meatballs and fry until fully cooked. Serve warm.

Dressed up snacks

2011-11-11T20:01:00.000+08:00

Thought I dress up their snacks for school a little with the picks and cutter I brought over.

Seems like they are not that interested in the cute-ness of the snacks. Or it could be that I need to put in more thought and make the snack box more appealing. Or it could just that they were not hungry since they have lunch in school.

I would like to think it's the last reason. :o

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-28T23:11:00.003+08:00

We've not moved in to our 'new' apartment yet. So, there's no way I can do any baking for the kids' class parties. Instead, I drew and cut these little bats to dress up the lollipops. The kids chipped in to help to stick the bats to the lollipops.

Porridge

2011-10-12T07:12:00.003+08:00

This is the first meal that I've cooked here, excluding instant noodles. It's a simple dish of porridge, with eggs, leftover roast chicken and spinach. With a kitchentte, I can only cook simple dishes. It's quite good when we eat with the you-tiao that we bought earlier, from Chinatown.

New country

2011-10-09T03:46:00.003+08:00

We've moved out of Middle East and have ventured to Latin America. With all my tools on their way to our new place, it's tough to do baking or cooking right now without them. The cooking and baking will definitely continue after we've found a new 'home' to settle in. :)

Colourful chewy cookies

2011-06-18T20:45:00.003+08:00

I made 2 different types, using the same cookie dough. One that has the colourful sprinkles so that the kids can bring to school and another with semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I feel the cookies a bit too sweet and must remember to reduce the amount of sugar the next time I bake these cookies. I found similar (& identical) recipes from various sites, so have no idea whose recipe it is actually. I adapted the one from browneyedbaker.com .

Ingredients
makes about 35 medium-sized cookies

2 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter (this is about 170g butter), melted & cooled until warm
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
semi-sweet chocolate chips, colourful sprinkles (amount depends on how much you want in your cookies)

Method

Preheat oven to 160 deg C

1. Mix melted butter & sugars until blended. Beat in the egg, yolk and vanilla essence until combined.

2. Add the flour, baking soda & salt. Beat at low speed just until combined.

3. Using 2 spoons, scoop the dough and place on the baking sheet. Keep the cookies about 2 inches apart as they will expand during baking. If you are making the colourful sprinkles, add them to the cookies now.

4. Bake until the cookies are light golden brown & the outer edges start to harden, yet the centres are still soft. This takes about 15 - 18 minutes, mine took 16 minutes.

5. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool on the baking tray. Remove and let them cool further on a rack, and keep in an airtight container.

Lemon Grass Fried Chicken Wings

2011-06-06T02:43:00.002+08:00

I adapted the recipe from Fabulous Fried Chicken by Tang Phaik Cheng to cook this dish. It looked interesting enough and I had lots of stalks of lemon grass sitting in my fridge, so here it is.

Do not be deceived - it is not just another fried chicken wing. Seasoning the wings with the hammered lemon grass gave them a light and refreshing taste although they were deep-fried. I didn't use the lemon grass powder as per the original recipe but the taste from the stalks was sufficient.

Ingredients
14 wings (mid-joint)
5 stalks of lemon grass
salt
egg white, beaten
crispy chicken coating flour

Method

1. Clean the wings with salt and rinse well. Remove the outer layer of the lemon grass, rinse and cut into smaller pieces. Hammer the lemon grass (I used the other end of the knife to do the job).

2. Add the hammered lemon grass and some salt to the wings. Mix well. Leave it to marinate in the fridge.

3. When ready to cook, dip the wings into the beaten egg white and coat with the crispy coating flour. Deep-fry over medium heat. When the wings turn golden brown, remove and drain. (I removed all the bits of lemon grass that were on the wings before coating them with the egg white and coating flour)

Stir-fry pasta

2011-06-02T01:05:00.004+08:00

This is a quick-to-assemble dish which doesn't require much preparation. It is simple yet tasty.

Ingredients

bacon, cut into small strips
minced chicken, seasoned with light soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil
2 eggs
pasta
oil
chopped garlic and shallots
salt and pepper

Method

1. Boil the pasta and cook until al dente. Scoop the pasta into cool water and then drain. Set aside.

2. Heat up the oil (approx. 2 tbsp; make sure the amount is sufficient as you will be using this amount of oil to cook everything). Add in the bacon when the oil is hot enough. Make sure the oil isn't too hot or the bacon will burn instead of becoming crispy. Take the crispy bacon out and set aside.

3. Using the same oil, fry the shallots for a short while. Then add in the garlic. Fry for a while and add the minced chicken. Fry until cooked and slightly browned. Scoop out and set aside together with the bacon.

4. Fry the eggs and when it's cooked, throw in the cooked chicken and bacon. Mix well and then add in the pasta.

5. Stir and fry everything together. Season with salt and pepper, to your personal preference. Serve freshly cooked.

Fried rice - #2

2011-05-30T01:28:00.003+08:00

There are many ways of cooking it and the method depends on the ingredients you're using.

Ingredients

Cooked rice (you can use either overnight rice or fresh rice. If using the latter, cook the rice earlier so that it can cool down and won't be so sticky when you fry it)
sausages, sliced
mixed vegetables
eggs, beaten
light soy sauce, pepper
crab sticks, shredded and fried prior to cooking the fried rice

Method

1. Heat up a little bit of oil. Add the eggs, followed by the rice. Stir quickly so that every grain is coated with the egg.

2. Add light soy sauce and pepper to taste.

3. Throw in the sausages and cover with the rice to heat them up.

4. Push the rice and leave a space for heating up the mixed vegetables. Stir and mix well.

5. Put a few slices of the fried crab stick and serve hot.

To make the fried rice more fragrant, you can stir fry some diced garlic and onion before adding the eggs.

Hor-fan

2011-05-26T01:32:00.000+08:00

The pictures are rather badly taken; doesn't make the dish look appealing. But it's actually quite good and this is a dish that we can't find in Doha. The amount for each ingredient is based on estimation, so I can't give you the exact measurements.

For the noodles

Ingredients
oyster sauce
dark sauce (the salty kind)
water
rice noodles, soaked in hot water to soften prior to frying

Method

1. Mix some oyster sauce, a little dark sauce and water. Pour into a wok.

2. Add the softened rice noodles and stir to mix well with the watery sauce. When the sauce has been absorbed by the noodles, remove from the wok and set aside.

(It might be a good idea to add a little oil so that the noodles can be glossier. I didn't add so the rice noodles were a little stickier.)

For the hor-fan sauce

Ingredients

water
dark sauce (the salty kind)
light soy sauce
salt
pepper
sugar
few slices of ginger
Tapioca flour/Corn flour mixed with cold water (to make the sauce starchy)
egg, beaten in a separate bowl
veg

Method

1. Add everything, except the tapioca flour/corn flour, and let it boil. Amount depends on how salty or sweet you want the sauce to be.

2. When the mixture has boiled, add in the eggs. Stir continuously as you pour the eggs in slowly.

3. Once you're ready to serve, add the tapioca flour/ corn flour solution to make the sauce 'sticky'. Lower the heat, add the solution slowly and stir continuously to prevent the starch from forming lumps. Continue to add the solution until you obtain the level of 'stickiness' you like.

4. Add in prawns and vegetables. I used frozen cooked prawns, so I would add them in towards the end. If you're using raw prawns, you can cook them separately first if you don't wish to add in at the beginning. Pour the sauce over the fried noodles and serve hot.

Egg noodles with soup

2011-05-18T22:10:00.007+08:00

Remember this?

This time round I used 1/3 of the powder to cook the dark sauce chicken. With the leftover sauce, I added more water and dash of salt, sesame oil, pepper, eggs and vegetables to make it into a soup base for the kids' macaroni. For myself, it was egg noodles.

Crispy chicken strips

2011-05-12T15:55:00.004+08:00

Ingredients

250g sliced breast meat (a better option would be thigh meat)

Seasoning

1/2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne chilli powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp light soy sauce
dash of black pepper
3 (thinly) sliced ginger

For frying

ready-made crispy chicken flour
plain breadcrumbs
egg white, beaten

Method

1. Add the seasoning together and marinate the chicken strips. Set aside in the fridge until ready to fry.

2. Mix some crispy chicken flour with the breadcrumbs.

3. When ready to fry, dip the chicken strips in the egg white and then coat with the crispy chicken flour + breadcrumb mixture.

4. Heat up oil. When ready, fry the chicken strips until golden brown.

Milk cupcakes

2011-05-10T08:02:00.001+08:00

This is my second attempt baking this milk cupcakes. I've adjusted the amount of condensed milk to make it sweeter and also used self-raising flour instead of the all-purpose flour. The result? Much better tasting cupcakes. :)

Ingredients

1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup condensed milk
3 tbsp milk
3/4 cup self-raising flour
3 tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly

Method

Preheat oven to 170 deg.

1. Whisk the egg, condensed milk and fresh milk together until well-mixed.

2. Add the self-raising flour and stir carefully to mix well. Add in the melted butter and whisk well. Do not over-whisk the batter.

3. Bake for about 8 to 9 minutes. Remove and let the cupcakes cool on a rack.

Fried carrot cake - 2nd attempt (different recipe)

2011-05-09T14:07:00.002+08:00

I'm still searching for the perfect fried carrot cake recipe. For the time being, this recipe will do - the carrot cake is softer yet still chewy. I have made adjustments and will need to add more water the next time round.

Ingredients

280ml water
100g rice flour
some shredded carrots
1 egg, beaten and seasoned with light soy sauce and pepper
salt, pepper, sugar

Method

1. Boil the shredded carrots with 160ml of water.

2. While waiting for the carrots to boil, mix the rice flour with 120ml of water. Add a dash of pepper, pinch of salt and sugar. Mix well.

3. Remove the boiled carrots (together with the water) from heat and add the rice flour mixture. Stir quickly until a batter is formed.

4. Pour into a lightly oiled tray. Steam over high heat for about 20 minutes or until firm.

5. Let it cool before cutting into small pieces.

6. Pan fried the carrot cake until softened. Pour the egg over the carrot cake. Flip the carrot cake over and cook the other side. Serve hot.

French toast

2011-05-02T13:23:00.002+08:00

Ingredients

margarine
eggs
sliced bread
sugar

Method

1. Add sugar to the eggs and beat well. The amount of sugar to be added is based on estimation. My general rule of thumb is about 2 teaspoons of sugar to 1 egg. And at the end, add in an additional about 1/2 to 1 teaspoonful. Set aside.

2. Scoop about 1 teaspoonful of margarine and use it to oil the heated frying pan. When it has almost melted, dip a slice of bread (cover every bit of bread) into the egg mixture and fry it.

3. Flip the bread when the first side is browned slightly. Remove from pan when it's cooked and let it cool before packing.

(the margarine gives a salty buttery taste; a contrast from the sweet egg mixture)

Sugar toast

2011-04-27T15:53:00.003+08:00

This is one of my favourite way of eating bread. The kids prefer theirs without the skin, so I would trim it off the slices before I bake them.

Ingredients

margarine/butter
sugar
bread

Method

Preheat oven at 180 deg C.

1. Spread the margarine on the bread. Sprinkle some sugar (depending on how sweet you want your toasted bread to be).

2. Bake for about 5 minutes or until the edges become slightly browned. (You can also toast in a toaster oven.)

BBC - Bread, bacon and cheese

2011-04-20T13:14:00.006+08:00

I have to prepare snacks for the kids everyday for their break-time in school. And I thought I should begin to post some of these so that I can refer to them in the future, especially if I forget how to prepare them.

Their snacks are always food that are easy to prepare since I only have about 20 minutes to get everything ready, before waking them and getting them ready for school.

Ingredients

4 strips of crispy bacon, cut into small pieces (I prepared the bacon the night before. Rinse, pat dry and baked in the over until almost cripsy)
2 sliced cheese
1 1/2 to 2 slices of white bread, cut into small pieces

Method

Pre-heat oven at 180 deg C.

1. Using a large muffin baking tray, line with muffin cups.

2. Put the bread as the base. Break the cheese into smaller pieces and put them on top of the bread. Add the bacon and then cover with some cheese again.

3. Bake for about 5 minutes or until the cheese melts and the bread a little browned.

4. Remove and cool on a rack. Pack when cooled.

Mui Fan - version 2

2011-04-20T13:12:00.003+08:00

To make use of the left-over dark sauce chicken (that was made much more diluted and I added in a few slices of ginger instead of its juice), I cooked some Mui Fan.

Ingredients

homemade chicken soup
left-over dark sauce chicken (meat shedded, with sauce)
egg
spinach
pinch of salt and pepper
dash of seasame oil
light soy sauce to taste

Method

1. Heat up the left-over dark chicken and add in some chicken soup and water.

2. Add spinach and egg. Stir while you pour in the egg.

3. Add the seasoning to taste.

4. Pour the soup over cooked rice and serve warm.

Homemade peanut sauce

2011-04-18T02:49:00.001+08:00

I was quite skeptical that this recipe will turn out good but decided to give it a try anyway. Wow! I'm surprised! It's quite good and another plus point, it's easy to prepare and I was happily licking the spoon used to scoop the peanut butter. :p
I served the peanut sauce with deep fried tau kwa.

Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup onions, finely chopped (I didn't measure mine, but think the amount I used was close to 1/3 cup)
garlic, finely chopped (I used a little bit)
1 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 cup Demerara cane sugar (original recipe used brown sugar. Don't know what's the difference between the 2. I used what I had at home.)
1/2 cup water (I had to add a little bit more to make the sauce more watery)
1 cup creamy peanut butter

Method
1. Heat oil and fry the onions, then the garlic.

2. Add chilli powder, sugar, water, light soy sauce and let the mixture boil until bubbling. Remember to keep stirring.

3. Remove from heat and add the peanut butter. Stir continuously until it's well-mixed into the watery mixture.

4. Add more water if the sauce is too thick. Serve warm.

Here's the link for the original recipe.

Melting moments

2011-03-22T02:32:00.000+08:00

I followed the original recipe in terms of the ingredients, only halving the portions and I managed to get 24 cookies (averaging 5 cm in diameter for each cookie). But I was lazy and didn't follow the first step (in the method) and my dough was not soft enough to use the piping method. So, I shaped the cookies by hand - rolled into small balls and flattening them. Next time, I shall shape them into bite-size because these cookies are really the melt-in-your-mouth type.

Ingredients
100g butter, softened to room temperature
40g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla essence (I put in a tiny bit more than 1 tsp)
1/8 tsp salt
60g self-raising flour, sifted
60g cornflour

Method
1. Cream butter, icing sugar, salt and vanilla essence until just combined. I just mixed them instead.

2. Add self-raising flour and cornflour. Mix.

3. Scoop the dough into piping bag and pipe out on baking tray. I shaped the dough into 24 balls, flatten them by hand and used a fork to make depression on the flattened dough for as design.

4. Bake in a pre-heated oven (160 deg) for 15 to 20 minutes, or until light brown. Mine took 13 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Savoury shao bing

2011-03-15T02:51:00.009+08:00

This recipe makes about 8 mini shao bing. I think I could have probably made 10 instead of the 'skin' was made a bit thinner. And I got the portion of the sugar 'wrong' but they still came out sweet enough.

Ingredients
100g glutinuous rice flour
2 tsp sugar
40ml water (just boiled)
50ml fresh milk
Fillings of your choice (e.g. red bean). I used leftover stir-fried minced beef. Was toying with the idea of putting into Nutella.

Method
1. Add sugar to (just) boiled water and stir until it dissolves. Stir in the fresh milk until they are mixed well.

2. Put the glutinuous rice flour in a separate bowl. Make a well and pour in the milk-water-sugar mixture. Don't pour all the mixture in at once; keep about 2 tbsp aside. Knead the dough and add the remaining mixture a little at a time, until the the dough is smooth and soft (and not dry).

3. Cover with cling wrap and let the dough rest for about 10 minutes. (Mine 'rested' for almost an hour)

4. Divide the dough into 8 - 10 pieces. Roll into round disc and wrap the desired fillings. Shape into a flat round piece, making sure that the filling is wrapped well.

5. Pan fry on low heat in a slightly oiled pan. When the dough turns translucent and the sides are lightly browned, the shao bing is cooked.

Recipe adapted from here.

Adegashi tofu

2011-03-14T20:29:00.003+08:00

Ingredients
tofu, cut into cubes
cornflour, for coating the tofu
Oil, for frying

For the sauce:
a little dark soy sauce
some light soy sauce
a few slices of ginger
some plain water
dash of pepper
pinch of sugar
dash of sesame oil

Method
1. Prepare the sauce by adding everything to a pot. Bring to a boil and adjust the taste according to preference. Put aside while frying the tofu cubes. Try and keep the sauce warm.

2. Heat the oil. When the oil is hot, coat the tofu cubes in the cornflour and fry them. Turn them over to the different sides when each side is golden brown. Remove from the oil and drain the excess oil from the tofu cubes. (* remember to dab-dry the tofu before coating with the cornflour)

3. Pour the sauce over the tofu when ready to serve.

Soy bean milk

2011-03-14T20:12:00.001+08:00

Ingredients
Soy beans
water
sugar

Method
1. Soak the soy beans for about 3 to 4 hours. Remove the impurities and pour the water away.
2. Put the softened beans in a blender. Add water, with a ratio of about 1 part beans to 2 parts water. Blend and scoop the blended mixture into a big pot.
3. Boil the mixture, add sugar to desired sweetness.
4. Use a filter to filter out the soy bean milk. (I used the largest possible disposable filters for brewing soup bought in Daiso)
5. Cool and serve.

Sea-shell cupcakes

2011-03-08T03:05:00.002+08:00

The new toy

Ingredients
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup castor sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
1 large egg
2 tbsp butter, cooled and softened

Method
1. Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture. Stir well, until the batter is smooth.

2. Heat up the 'doughnut maker'. Scoop about 1/3 tsp of batter into each mould. Close and bake until cooked.

3. Remove and let the sea-shell cupcakes cool. If you want, you can toss them in some castor sugar/icing sugar to make it sweeter.

Recipe was adapted from this blog.

Fried fish-prawn balls

2011-03-03T16:16:00.001+08:00

Thank goodness I checked the expiry date of the frozen raw prawns in the freezer. It was going to expire in a week's time. And I was going to make some fishballs for the kids, so the prawns were included as well.

The preparation is exactly the same as before, just that this time round I went by gut feeling and not follow the recipe strictly (or blindly). I also added some pepper, besides salt, to add more flavour to the fish balls, prawn-balls and fish-prawn-balls.

Guo-tie (Pot Stickers)

2011-02-25T03:05:00.001+08:00

Time to experiment new dishes. This time, it is the guo-tie. I was surprised that it was quite easy to pleat the dumplings. I was expecting to spend a long long time pleating decent-looking dumplings.

The skin of the dumplings was ok, nothing to rave about. I will need to make it a little thinner the next time. The filling was too bland - need to be more generous with the seasoning.

Recipe taken from here.

Flower Biscuits

2011-02-21T16:14:00.001+08:00

Meimei did most of these little ones.

Topped with strawberry jam

Didi said I forgot to take a picture of his biscuit. Here it is, after he took a bite.

Ingredients

120g unsalted butter, softened
50g castor sugar
170g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg yolk
Large pinch of salt
Jam

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add and beat in the egg yolk and vanilla essence.

2. Mix in the flour and salt and stir until the mixturee becomes a soft dough. Put the dough in a plastic bag and put in the fridge for 30 minutes (to 1 hour), until it becomes firm.

3. Preheat the oven to 170 deg C. Using a mould, cut the dough into desired shapes. I used the mould for making pineapple tarts. Bake the biscuits for 12 to 15 minutes, or until slightly golden brown.

4. Leave the biscuits to cool on the baking tray for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

5. Serve with jam, when ready to eat.

Yong Tau Foo

2011-02-16T00:04:00.006+08:00

This is another dish using the fish paste. Instead of only making fishballs, I thought I could try doing one of the Yong Tau Foo dishes. I fried the sliced tofu first and put some fish paste on top when they've cooled. And when the chicken soup is boiled, add in the slices of fried tofu with fish paste. Serve hot.

Homemade fishballs and cabbage soup

2011-02-06T15:56:00.003+08:00

After seeing a photo of homemade fishball by a fellow Singaporean living in Doha, I thought I should give it a try too. I followed the recipe from this blog but I only used 150g of fish instead. With this 150g of kingfish and barracuda (I think), I made 13 a-little-too-large fishballs. Next time, I will only buy kingfish to make the fishballs and to make smaller fishballs.

How to make the fishballs

Ingredients
150gm kingfish meat, remove bones and skin

Solution A:
1 tbsp water, 1/2 tsp salt (I only used a few scoops of this solution as the original recipe used 600gm spanish mackeral)

Solution B:
25ml water
1/2 tsp salt
dash of pepper
1/4 tbsp cornflour

Method
1. Using a food processor, blend the fish slices until fine. And while doing do, add solution a little at a time.

2. Scoop the fish paste into a big bowl. Stir in one direction; add solution B while stirring. Stir until the paste becomes sticky.

3. Using your hand, throw the fish paste against the side of the bowl until the paste becomes springy.

4. Grease your hands with a little bit of oil. And separate the fish paste into small balls. Unlike the professionals in the wet market, my fishballs are not round. Once you've made the small balls, leave them in a bowl of water salted with 1 tsp of salt. Leave the fishballs to soak for at least 1/2 hour.

Recipe was taken from here.

Mee Rebus (failed attempt)

2011-02-01T21:24:00.008+08:00

Decided to be a little more adventuous and cook mee rebus at home. I was suspicious right from the start - do the hawkers use curry paste to prepare their mee rebus? I figured I'll give the recipe a try nevertheless. Just as expected, it turned out to be more like curry noodles than mee rebus. Could it be because I skipped the tamarind (because it looked really gross even after I added water to soften it)? Could it also be because I didn't add enough water?

Lesson learnt - next time, I shall just buy the premix from Singapore and bring them over to Doha. :p

For the kids

For the adults

Fried carrot cake

2011-01-28T15:39:00.005+08:00

Followed the recipe in this blog but I reduced it to 1/3 portion; and without the cai-pok. It's okie but I will have to tweak the recipe further to make it smoother and softer. If you like the carrot cake to be a little more chewy, then the original recipe is good for you.

Homemade mini popiah

2011-01-26T02:42:00.003+08:00

This is another must-try and it's easy to prepare. Another plus - I prepared it beforehand and then freeze them. Was hoping that the kids will try it but no luck. Will still make more of them when we're done with this first batch - it's quite yummy.

Ingredients
ready-made spring roll skin (easily found in supermarkets, even in Doha)
a can of tuna (in plain water)
dash of paprika and pepper
little bit of oil

Method
1. Drain the water from the tuna and add the paprika and pepper. The amount is dependent on your personal preference. Mix well.
2. Heat up the little bit of oil. Pan-fry the seasoned tuna for a while. Set aside to let it cool.
3. Scoop about a teaspoon of the tuna and wrap it in the popiah skin. Pack in air-tight boxes and keep them in the freezer.

When you want to eat them, just fry them directly. No need to wait for them to defrost. They are ready once they turn golden-brown.

To learn how to wrap them properly to minimise splattering while frying, take a while to go this site. I got the inspiration to make these mini popiahs from there.

Chocolate chip cookies

2011-01-20T02:37:00.006+08:00

I adapted the recipe and reduced the amount of sugar, after reading feedback that with the original recipe, the cookies were a little too sweet. With the modified recipe, the cookies came out just nice.

Meimei arranged the cookies for me to take a photo. And Didi requested for a new batch - without the chocolate chips.

Ingredients

250 g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
100 g castor sugar
100 g brown sugar
1 egg
320 g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200 g chocolate chips (I used Hersheys semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Method
1. Beat the butter, vanilla essence, sugar and egg until smooth.
2. Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Bake at 180 deg C for 15 min or until golden brown. (size of the cookie is up to your preference. But leave ample space between the cookies as they will 'grow' while baking)
4. Cool on rack before storing.

BBQ chicken wings

2011-01-18T14:24:00.002+08:00

This is good. When you first bite into the wings, it's sweet and then the spicyness kicks in. The spicyness is not overpowering, balances well with the initial sweetness.

Recipe taken from Steamy Kitchen.

Makes about 12 chicken wings

Ingredients
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cayenne powder
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
Dash of black pepper

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Add and coat the wings. I left them in the dry rub for about 3 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Bake for 20 minutes, turn the wings over and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes.

Noodles with dark sauce

2011-01-15T00:10:00.007+08:00

Ingredients

Oyster sauce
Dark soy sauce
Sesame oil
Water
Dash of salt & sugar
Pepper
Carrots, sliced
Chicken, cut into small pieces
Noodles (I used instant noodles, without the seasoning)
Chilli padi (optional)

(everything was based on estimation, so can't share exact measurements)

Method

1. Stir fry the chicken with a little bit of oil until totally dry and slightly browned. Add the carrots.
2. Mix in the water, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, salt, sugar, sesame oil and pepper to taste.
3. Lower temperature and let it simmer until the carrots are soft.
4. Cook noodles and pour the sauce when ready to serve.

Kung-pao spaghetti

2011-01-15T00:02:00.004+08:00

Ingredients

Ingredients

Kung-pao sauce
Chicken (cut into small pieces)
Mixed vegetable
Cashew nuts
Spaghetti
Chilli padi (optional)

Method
1. Boil the spaghetti until almost cooked. Rinse in cool water and set aside.
2. Heat some oil and fry the chicken until slightly browned. Add in the mixed vegetable, then the cashew nuts.
3. Add in the cooked spaghetti and kung-pao sauce. Stir fry everything together. Serve hot.

Wholemeal ham bun

2010-11-22T03:55:00.002+08:00

Ham only

Ham and cheddar cheese

Using the wholemeal flour makes the dough easier to manage, compared to the all purpose flour. However, the bun isn't as soft and fluffy as the sausage buns made previously. I followed the recipe from this link, and used wholemeal flour (which has a picture of a bread on the packaging, so perhaps this is bread flour) instead of bread flour.

Ingredients
350g wholemeal flour
10g instant yeast
60g castor sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp condensed milk
100g cold milk
50g cold water
1 egg
40g margarine

Method

Preheat oven - 180 deg C

1. Combine flour, instant yeast, sugar and salt into the mixing bowl and mix them together. Pour in the milk, water and egg.

2. Beat at medium speed until the dough is smooth (I stopped when it seemed like everything was mixed well). Add in the margarine and continue beating until the dough is smooth. Let it rest for 45 min.

3. Divide the dough into 12 portions and cover it, rest for another 10 min.

4. Roll out the dough and wrap the ham and leave to rise on the baking tray for another 45 minutes.

5. Brush with egg and bake for about 12 minutes, or until cooked.

Kids don't like the bread. Guess I won't be baking these anytime soon.

Lasagne

2010-11-14T03:15:00.002+08:00

The kids don't really like it. Meimei said it doesn't taste good (she meant it's not salty/ tasty enough). Didi only managed a few scoops. Either the portions for the meat sauce and white sauce were too little or I was too generous. Think I only managed 5 layers instead of 9 according to the recipe. However, it's worth a second try but the portions for the meat sauce and white sauce need to be tweaked so that the lasagne can turn out tastier and creamier.

The recipe given on the back of the box of instant lasagne:

Ingredients

450g lean minced beef
1 finely chopped onion (I didn't add this cos had none)
olive oil
400g tomato sauce (maybe pasta sauce would have been better)
25g butter (I just scooped an estimated amount)
25g flour (I used all purpose flour. Wonder what it is for.)
425ml milk
some grated Parmesan cheese

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C.

1. Cook the beef and finely chopped onion in a little olive oil, until browned. Add the sauce, cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

2. Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Gradually stir in the milk. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring continously. (I just poured all the milk in and stir and stir and stir.)

3. Place alternate layers of meat sauce, lasagne and white sauce in a large ovenproof dish. Repeat until 9 sheets of lasagne have been used, finished with a layer of white sauce.

4. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Serve immediately.

2-cheeses pizza

2010-11-10T19:47:00.003+08:00

The kids love this particular pizza from Carrefour - it's a combination of different cheeses. I thought it will be worth trying making the crust and make my own 2-cheeses pizza (2 becos I only have 2 types of cheese at home). The crust is not too bad though it's bit too chewy and not the crusty sort that we like.

I followed the recipe in this book which I bought many many years ago.

Ingredients for basic pizza dough:
15g/ 1 1/2 tbsp active dried yeast
250ml/ 1 cup lukewarm water
pinch of salt
5ml/ 1 tsp salt
350-400g/ 3-3 1/2 cups plain flour (I think I used slightly more than 3 1/2 cups in all)

(serves 4 as a main course or 8 as an appetizer)

Method:
1. Warm a medium mixing bowl by swirling some hot water in it. Drain. Place the yeast in the bowl, and pour in the warm water. Stir in the sugar, mix with a fork, and allow to stand until the yeast has dissolved and starts to foam, 5-10 minutes.

2. Use a wooden spoon to mix in the salt and about one-third of the flour. Mix in another third of the flour, stirring with the spoon until the dough forms a mass and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Sprinkle some of the remaining flour onto a smooth work surface. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it, working in the remaining flour a little at a time. Knead for 8-10 minutes. By the end, the dough should be elastic and smooth. Form it into a ball.

4. Lightly oil a mixing bowl. Place the dough in the bowl. Stretch a moistened and wrung-out dish towel across the top of the bowl, and leave it to stand in a warm place until the dough has doubled in volume, about 40-50 minutes or more. (I just used a cling wrap to cover the bowl)

5. Punch the dough down with your fist to release the air. Knead for 1-2 minutes. Divide the dough according to your preference. Pat the ball of dough out into a flat circle on a lightly floured surface.

6. Press some of the dough from the centre of the circle towards the edge, to make a thicker rim. Place it on a baking sheet.

Pre-heat the oven to 250 deg C.

7. Spread some pasta sauce and add the toppings of your choice. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the cheeses are bubbling.

Cheese buns

2010-11-07T20:43:00.005+08:00

I used the same bread recipe (as the sausage buns in the previous post) because I took the wrong packet of flour from the shelf in the supermarket. Arrrgghhh!!!! Was supposed to take the bread flour and when I opened the plastic bag yesterday, it turned out I took the all purpose flour again!!!

No choice, so just had to make do with whatever I have. And I mixed in some mozzarella cheese that was in my fridge, thinking that it'll be a tasty cheesy bun. I am so wrong....cheese buns without any cheese taste! :(

Next time, I shall use the cheddar cheese instead. And I will put a slab of it in each bun and put some mozzarella cheeze on top to make the bun look yummy.

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels

2010-11-03T20:41:00.005+08:00

I like cinnamon sugar pretzels and thought that it would be good idea to try and bake some myself. After this session, I doubt I will bake more of these although it tastes good. There just too much work involved and it's tough to get the pretzels shaped nicely. The recipe is from this blog.

Mini sausage buns

2010-10-28T03:07:00.002+08:00

I modified the recipe from this blog because I can't find bread flour or cake flour in the supermarkets here.

Verdict: The kids loved it. Didi told me he wants more.

Ingredients
(makes 12 mini sausage buns)

250g all purpose flour
40g castor sugar
5g instant yeast
1/2 egg (I used the other half to glaze the buns)
100g water at room temperature
10g milk
35g margarine
6 sausages, cut into halves

Method
1. Beat all the ingredients together except the margarine in a mixer, for about 10 min.

2. Add in the margarine and continue beating for about 5 minutes.

3. Roll the dough into a ball and let it proof for 45 minutes. While waiting for the dough to proof, I cut the sausages into halves.

4. Separate the dough into 40g each and let it rest for another 10 minutes.

5. Wrap the dough around each sausage and place on the baking tray. Let it proof for another 45 minutes.

6. Brush with the lightly beaten egg (to glaze the buns). Bake at 180 deg for about 12 minutes or until cooked.

Red bean soup with glutinuous rice balls

2010-10-11T01:34:00.006+08:00

Mui Fan

2010-10-11T01:20:00.006+08:00

Mui Fan is one of my favourite zi-char dishes. The kids don't mind eating my version of the mui fan and they called it 'Special Porridge'.

When in Singapore, I would add in minced and sliced pork (instead of sausages) which would make the sauce a little sweeter. Instead of using oyster sauce and mushroom sauce, my choice would be vegetarian oyster sauce. But it has proved impossible to find vegetarian oyster sauce in Doha and the kids somehow don't really like the mushroom sauce (which should be the closst substitute).

To prevent the sauce from becoming watery from reheating, it would be better to use tapioca flour than cornflour to make the sauce 'sticky'.

Nasi Lemak

2010-10-07T03:19:00.003+08:00

Meimei loves to eat nasi lemak and I thought that since we managed to buy pandan leaves, I'll give it a try at home.

Somehow, the pandan leaves are not as fragrant as the ones we can find in Singapore and so it didn't leave much of a taste or aroma in the rice. No sambal chilli because it would be real time consuming to attempt cooking it myself and I would be totally stressed out trying to get the necessary ingredients in Doha.

I followed the recipe from this website. I used powdered coconut mixed with water to get the required amount of coconut milk. Perhaps I didn't add enough powder because the rice didn't turn out too lemak.

Ingredient
2 cups of rice
3 pandan leaves, tied in a knot
salt to taste
5.6 oz of coconut milk
some water

Method
1. Rinse the rice and drain the water as per normal.
2. Add coconut milk, pinch of salt and some water. Put the pandan leaves in the rice.
3. Let the rice cooker do its job.

Pancake?

2010-10-01T14:11:00.001+08:00

Ok, I don't know if this can pass as a pancake. It is too soft, chewy compared to the usual pancake that we can find. Anyway, Meimei likes it and she ate 2 of it.

Ingredients
All purpose flour
1 egg, beaten
a pinch of salt
sugar
milk
water
butter/margarine

No exact measurements because it was purely by estimation that I made these 'pancakes'.

Method
1. Mix everything together. Make sure the flour has totally blended in with the rest of the ingredients and not lumpy.
2. Heat up the frying pan, add some butter/margarine and pour in part of the mixture. Remove when cooked.
3. Serve hot with jam.

Baked soy sauce chicken

2010-09-23T03:29:00.002+08:00

This is yummy. Will make this again soon because the kids like it. Recipe is from this blog.

Ingredients
(makes 6 mid-joint wings)

20ml light soy sauce
100ml water
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon ginger juice (I omitted this)

Method
1. Mix all ingredients well in a pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Continue cooking for 15 minutes.
2. Remove wings and place them on a rack. Retain sauce for basting. Bake them in the oven at 200C for 7 minutes.
3. Remove the wings and dip them the the sauce previously retained.
4. Return to bake for another 5 minutes.
5. Serve with rice.

Mee-suan in chicken soup

2010-09-18T04:51:00.003+08:00

Adapted the recipe from Jamie Oliver's website to cook this mee-suan. Surprisingly, we can find mee-suan in Doha.

Ingredients
1 Knoss chicken cube (I added more than 1 litre of water by the time I finished cooking)
1 1/2 chicken breast meat, sliced
a few slices of ginger
1 stalk of lemon grass
cabbage, chopped
carrots, sliced
capsicums, sliced (I wanted to finish the green and orange capsicums)
prawns (I used the frozen jumbo shrimps)
sesame oil and pepper, to taste
mee-suan

Method
1. Prepare the chicken soup. When it is boiling, add in the ginger, lemon grass, carrots and cabbage and let it continue boiling.
2. Add in the chicken meat, prawns and capsicums when you see that the carrots and cabbage are cooked.
3. Season the soup to your preference. Add the mee-suan and serve hot.

Braised Chicken with Egg Noodles

2010-09-15T02:02:00.010+08:00

Instead of using pork, I used chicken thigh meat (with the bones) to make the soupy braised stew. As per the instructions on the pre-packed seasoning, I added some garlic, small onions, sugar, dark and light soy sauce. I added some pepper to oomph the flavour.

Verdict: Yummy.

The pre-packed seasoning is what I bought in Singapore and brought in with our luggage. This is recommended by my mother for cooking braised pork - very delicious.

Mango sticky rice (failed attempt)

2010-09-13T03:38:00.005+08:00

I love to eat this Thai dessert and the Thai restaurant that we went to in Doha doesn't serve it. I wonder how they can still call themselves a Thai restaurant when they don't even serve this basic dessert.

And I went in search of recipes and bought all the ingredients, hoping to satisfy my craving. What a disappointment the whole dish turned out - the mango was not sweet and the rice not fragrant enough. Will just wait until I go back to Singapore to have a decent mango with sticky rice (minus the coconut milk topping, of course).

Honey baked wings

2010-09-13T03:04:00.004+08:00

Verdict : Not too bad. Just need to be more generous with the salt the next time I cook this dish.

Got the recipe from this blog.

Ingredients

1kg chicken mid joint
5 tbsp honey
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp wine (omitted this)

I baked the wings at about 180 deg for approximately 20-25 min. Next time, I must remember to turn the wings half way through so that the whole wing will be browned.

Sticky Fried Rice

2010-09-05T19:03:00.003+08:00

Meimei likes the Thai sticky rice that Papa bought (wrongly). So, this is one of the dishes that will be made using the sticky rice, until we finish the pack.

Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup thai sticky rice (aka sweet rice), soaked for about 1 hr prior to cooking
- 4 slices of bacon
- chicken (I used the leftover roasted chicken)
- chopped cabbage

Method
1. Fry the bacon until a little crispy. Cut into small strips.
2. Using the oil left from frying the bacon, cook the cabbage. When the cabbage is almost cooked, add in the chicken and bacon.
3. Add in only the rice grains. Keep the water aside.
4. Season with dark soya sauce, sesame oil, pepper and a little light soya sauce to taste.
5. Scoop the rice mixture and put into the rice cooker. Add the water that was put aside in step 3. And let the rice cooker cook the rice.

Mini pizzas

2010-08-27T22:00:00.010+08:00

Got the kids to personalise their pizzas with the mini pizza crusts we bought from the supermarket yesterday. We finished the pasta sauce, luncheon meat and sausages that were left from cooking spaghetti a few days ago.

Spreading the paste on the half baked crust

And the pizzas are ready to go into the oven

Baked!

Fruit juice to go with the mini pizzas

A happy lunch

Didi doesn't look that happy because he was trying to keep his mouth closed while chewing his food. Got to teach him some good table manners now.

Noodle soup

2010-08-27T22:00:00.008+08:00

This isn't exactly the healthiest vegetable soup since I used the Knoss chicken cube to prepare the soup base. It contains MSG but having some once in a while is fine and the vegetables in the soup will 'offset' the unhealthiness of the soup base. And I baked some fish slices to add to the soup.

Turns out the soup actually tasted quite sweet - natural sweetnesses from the vegetables. The kids wasn't in the mood to eat although it was their favourite instant noodles.

Wraps

2010-06-09T18:55:00.004+08:00

Inspired by a friend's posting on making wraps for her kids' meal, I decided that my kids can also try that since they love pizza and prata. And the wholemeal wrap is much healthier option for everyone.

This is for the kids. Honey baked ham with cheese (for Meimei) and plain (for Didi). They each had their saucer filled with ketchup and mayonnaise. No vegetables because it would have been impossible to get them to eat them raw.

Next, is mine. Peppercorn ham with cheese and a few pieces of butterhead lettuce.

Verdict? Yummy-licious! Didi thought it was prata and happily ate the whole wrap. Meimei was very clever - she mixed the ketchup and mayonnaise and dipped her wrap in it.

Cookies

2010-06-08T15:44:00.003+08:00

Had some help from Meimei to cut and decorate some of the cookies. To speed things up, I finished the remaining dough by adding chocolate chips. The semi-sweet chocolate chips made the cookies seemingly less sweet.

I must remember to reduce the amount of sugar the next time I use this recipe (same recipe). It's still too sweet.

Cabbage rice

2010-03-29T19:14:00.006+08:00

Yeah! 'Tricked' the kids into eating cabbage. Meimei liked it very much and asked for second helping. :)

Ingredients
1. Chicken meat, cut into small pieces
2. Cabbage, cut into very small pieces (so that the kids won't realise they are actually eating it)
3. Dry shrimps (but i removed it from the kids' bowls. The rice has a tinge of the taste)
4. Dried Chinese mushroom, soaked and cut into strips (also removed from the kids' bowls)
5. Garlic and onion, chopped into small pieces
6. Dark sauce, light soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper. (Season the chicken meat with these and put aside)
7. Rice (wash and separate the water from the rice grains. DO NOT throw the water away. You'll need to add it to the rice to cook in the rice cooker)

Method
1. Stir fry the onion (first) and then the garlic until fragrant. Add in the mushrooms.
2. When the mushrooms are about to be cooked, add in the seasoned chicken meat. Fry until there is totally no 'juice' left. Remove and put aside.
3. Stir fry the onions (first) and then garlic until fragrant. Add the dry shrimp, fry until fragrant. Add in the shredded cabbage and again, fry until it's dry.
4. Add in the washed rice grains, cooked chicken meat and mushrooms. Fry a little and add dark sauce, light soy sauce to taste. Scoop into the rice cooker and add the water that was put aside.
5. Let the rice cooker do its job and viola, cabbage rice is served.

Sweet Potato and Tang Yuan Dessert

2010-03-26T23:51:00.004+08:00

Ingredients
1. Sweet potato
2. Ready made Tang Yuan
3. Pandan leaves (tie the leaves so that it's easier to manage)
4. A few slices of ginger
5. Solid hard sugar (which looks like this)
6. Fine brown sugar

Method
1. Bring water to boil. Throw in the pandan leaves and sweet potato.
2. When the sweet potato is cooked, add in the solid hard sugar and fine brown sugar to taste. Add the ginger slices too.
3. Add the Tang Yuan and when they rise to the surface of the water. The dessert is ready to be served.

Tang Yuan, anyone?

2010-03-09T23:45:00.001+08:00

Fried vegetable fritters

2010-03-02T18:42:00.001+08:00

Ingredients
1. 220g self raising flour
2. 280ml water
3. 1 egg
4. 40g whitebaits/ yin2 yu2 = silverfish [direct translation]
5. 100g shredded pumpkin
6. 1 tsp salt
(also added some spring onions, shredded carrots, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, some pepper, some paprika. You can be creative and add in almost any type of vegetable.)

Method
1. Mix the self-raising flour, water, egg, salt, turmeric powder, pepper and paprika powder well.
2. Add in the pumpkin, carrot, spring onion, silvefish and mix well.
3. Heat oil and deep-fry the batter until golden brown.

Homemade Ngo Hiang

2010-02-25T18:55:00.006+08:00

Ingredients (no exact amount. Everything was purely by estimation)
1. Minced Pork
2. Prawn (pat dry and then cut into small pieces or chopped)
3. Carrots (i grated them so that the kids won't know)
4. Fresh water chestnuts (washed, skinned and diced)
5. Garlic (chopped) - little bit
6. Onions (chopped) - little bit
7. Bean Curd Skin (better luck at the wet market. Buy the type that is softer. If in doubt, just ask the seller that you want the 'skin' to make ngo hiang)
8. Egg (optional, depending on the 'wetness' of the meat)

Seasoning
1. Light soy sauce
2. Pinch of salt
3. Pepper
4. Sesame oil
5. Chestnut powder (I couldn't find this in NTUC, but the provision shops in the wet market sells it)

Method
1. Season the pork with the light soy sauce, pepper, sesame oil and salt. Mix well.
2. Add in the prawn, garlic, onion, water chestnuts and carrots. Mix well.
3. If the meat is too dry, you can add an egg. If the meat is wet, you can skip adding the egg to the mixture.
5. Add the chestnut powder. Mix well, the meat mixture should be a little bit sticky. Leave it aside.
6. Cut the bean curd skin into the size that you want. Make sure you leave sufficient allowance for the skin to wrap round twice. To prepare the bean curd skin, it is VERY important to use a slightly damp cloth to wipe/dab the skin, at least twice, to remove the excess salt. If not, the ngo hiang will be too salty.
7. Scoop the portion of meat to be wrapped and put it onto the edge of the bean curd skin. Wrap it tight. Use either egg-white or plain water to seal the end when you're done wrapping.
8. Steam the ngo hiang for about 15 minutes or until cooked. Let the steam/juice drip off a bit before you transfer them to a plate to cool.
9. Freeze the portions that you wish to keep for another day. To serve, just pan fry until the skin is golden brown and looks crispy.

Handmade noodles

2010-02-24T22:06:00.007+08:00

Chinese New Year 2010 Bakes

2010-02-08T23:48:00.005+08:00

Decided to be a little more adventurous and I baked 3 different types of Chinese New Year goodies.

(from left to right) peanut cookies, pineapple balls, cornflake cookies, pineapple tarts

My favourite is the pineapple balls which is bite-size which makes it convenient and also the crust 'protected' the jam from drying up during the baking process. The cornflake cookies are second in place - aromatic and little crunchy. The peanut cookies are a major disappointment - way too sweet. The pineapple tarts - well, what to expect when the jam is not home-made. The crust is good though. I will be using the left-over dough to make cute cut-out cookies for the kids.

Pineapple tarts

2010-01-10T15:56:00.002+08:00

Made in baking class

Diary-free; made at home

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T17:47:00.004+08:00

Cranberry Walnut Biscotti

2009-12-23T17:37:00.005+08:00

My mother asked me to help finish her stock of walnuts and since she mentioned about biscotti, I thought I should try baking her some biscotti with the walnuts and packet of cranberries that is going to expiry next year.

I tried 2 different recipes at one go - one with butter and another without. I like the one without butter because the end product looked more like a biscotti that we can buy from the shops and it's easier to cut too. You can find the original recipe from here.

My mother, sis and BIL and hubby preferred the biscotti with butter. You can find the original recipe from here.

Here's my version:

Spritz cookies

2009-12-15T22:45:00.005+08:00

I changed the butter to margarine so that Didi can enjoy the cookies too. He was so excited and kept asking for 'biscuits' when he saw me mixing the ingredients. Meimei helped with the cookie cutters.

I don't even need to decorate the cookies and the kids are already excited. Just imagine if I were to put in some simple decorations, they would be over the moon! The kids couldn't wait until tomorrow to try the cookies and they each took 3 cookies. Both the kids wanted the bell-shaped cookies. Didi took one and ran off shouting 'jingle bell', 'jingle bell'.

In case you're keen to try, I got the recipe from this blog.

Teriyaki Chicken

2009-11-08T23:28:00.006+08:00

Cashing in on the kids' willingness to try seaweed and Japanese food, they were served Teriyaki Chicken with Calrose rice garnished with bits of seaweed.

Banana Cake

2009-11-06T16:14:00.004+08:00

Baked a banana cake yesterday. As expected, the kids didn't like it. They don't like the smell of banana since young. I modified the recipe taken from a blog to make it dairy-free.

Ingredients
125g margarine
175g sugar
2 eggs
230 mashed bananas
1 tsp baking powder
225g plain flour

Method
1. Cream margarine and sugar until lifht and fluffy
2. Add in eggs, one at a time.
3. Mixed in mashed bananas.
4. Mix in sifted flour and baking powder

Bake at 180 deg for about 45 min.

Little cookies

2009-09-30T23:53:00.002+08:00

Made these cookies from a premix; for the kids' Children's Day party at the childcare centre. Think I made almost a hundred of them.

How the cookies looked before and after baking

Doughnuts

2009-09-13T20:32:00.002+08:00

Baked these doughnuts from the premix.

Temp: about 170 deg
Time: 5 to 10 min (depends on the thickness of the doughnuts)

Before baking

End products

Rice for the children

2009-09-04T20:46:00.003+08:00

Adds fun to the boring serving of rice for the children.

My humble little cupcakes

2009-09-01T10:55:00.004+08:00

Agar-agar

2009-08-30T20:58:00.004+08:00

My first attempt at making layered agar-agar. I forgot to let the first layer cool first before pouring the next layer. But the effect still came out quite pretty. The kids didn't enjoy eating the agar-agar because it was too hard for their liking.

Animals cookies

2009-04-25T23:17:00.001+08:00