Light Coffee Cake

This cake is made from a modified recipe from kuali.com (by Amy Beh). The original recipe can be found here: http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=2668

What I did was reduce the sugar amount by 20gm and less 10-15gm butter. I’ve also substituted the milk powder with soya bean powder (yes, it works too!). Since I do not have any coffee powder but I wanted to make a coffee cake, I just use 4 tbsp of Pokka milk coffee and added 2 tbsp of self raising flour to balance the ratio of liquid & flour in the mixture. To give it some colour, I also added a tbsp of cocoa powder.

You can bake it at a lower temperature and shorter time as long as it's cooked. I used 150C and baked it for 35-40min.

I like this recipe as the cake is moist and the texture is just right. It’s also easy to make, so I highly recommend this for beginners in baking, like me!

Pineapple & Chicken Frankfurters Pizza

Thanks to Lizard Meng, I have this nice pizza as lunch today. It's so simple to make and you can experiment it with other toppings such as tuna and crab sticks or with some marinated chicken strips. Yummy~~

Ingredients:
Pita bread (wholemeal or plain)
Chili & Tomato sauce (mix together)
Green bell pepper (chopped)
Onion (chopped)
Tomato (cut into small pieces)
Pineapple (cut into small pieces)
Chicken frankfurters (cut into small pieces)
Cheese


Method:
1. Spread the chili and tomato sauce on the bread.
2. Sprinkle some cheese, green bell pepper, onion, chicken frankfurters and pineapple onto the bread.
3. Top it with some cheese.
4. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170C for 15min.

Pineapple Fried Rice

I must say this is not a very successful experiment but not too bad for 1st attempt gua...
Will put more pineapple next time and spice it up with some chillis!

Ingredients:
Rice (cooked)
Pineapple (cut into small pieces)
Chicken meat (de-boned and marinate with soya sauce and pepper)
Onion (diced)
Carrot (diced)
Cabbage (shredded)
Crab stick (cut into 1cm pieces)
Long beans (cut into small pieces)
Raisins
Egg (beat with some pepper)
Turmeric powder + Curry powder (mix to form paste with some water)
Salt
Pepper
Soya sauce (optional)
Sugar
Water
Oil


Method:
1. Heat oil in wok and sauté the onions.
2. Put in the egg and cook till almost done.
3. Add chicken meat and turmeric & curry paste and mix well. Stir fry for 1-2min.
4. Put in carrot, cabbage, long beans and crab sticks. Stir fry for 1-2min with some salt and sugar.
5. Pour in the rice and mix well. Add some water if it’s too dry.
6. Add in pineapple and stir fry for 1-2min.
7. Season with some pepper and soya sauce/salt (if not salty enough).
8. Lastly, add the raisins and mix well or you can dish up and sprinkle raisins on top of the fried rice.
*I find the crab sticks do not really mix well with the taste, so I would prefer to omit this from the fried rice next time.

Tom Yam Fried Mi Fen

Feels like having something spicy today!

Ingredients:
Mi Fen (soak in water till soft)
Dried shrimps (soak in water till soft and chop)
Carrot (cut into thin strips)
Onions (diced)
Shallots
Cabbage (shredded)
Tom Yam paste
Sugar/Honey
Water
Oil


Method:
1. Heat oil and saute the shallots till fragrant.
2. Add the onions and dried shrimps. Stir fry for 3-4min.
3. Add carrots and cabbage. Stir fry for 1-2min.
4. Put in some tom yam paste and sugar/honey.
5. Add in the mi fen and mix well. Use low heat.
6. Add a little water and when all the ingredients are mixed well, use high heat and stir fry for 1-2min.
7. Dish up and serve.
*I did not use salt as the tom yam paste is quite salty but you can always add some salt or soya sauce to your preference.

Soy Noodles in Soup

There’s leftover corn and apple in the fridge and what can we do with them for a meal? How about some nice and healthy soup? ^_^
You can also use pear instead of apple and eat it with your favourite noodles.

Ingredients:
Chicken drumstick
(any part of the chicken will do though I don’t think you fancy eating the head! ;p)
Carrot
Tomato (cut into wedges)
Apple (cut into wedges)
Corn
Tofu
Red dates
Salt
Pepper
Soy noodles (soak in water for 30min)
Water


Method:
1. In a pot of boiling water, put in tomato, carrot, tofu, corn, red dates and chicken.
2. Cook over low heat till chicken is soft. Alternatively, you can cook it for a few hours in a slow cooker over high heat.
3. Add salt and pepper as seasoning for the soup.
4. When ready to serve, put in the noodles and cook till boiling. Do not overcook noodles.

Marmite Chicken

Anyone out there likes Marmite chicken? We recently went dinner with our church pastor and some friends and all of us just loved this dish. So, the next thing I did was to search for its recipe. Hehe….and ta-da…here’s a simplified version of the original recipe.


Ingredients:
Chicken (cut into bite size)
Pepper
Soya Sauce
Corn Flour
Marmite Sauce
Honey
Shallots
Oil


Method:
1. Marinate chicken with pepper and soya sauce for 1hr.
2. Heat oil and fry the chicken. Set aside.
3. Stir fry shallots till fragrant.
4. In a bowl, mix honey, pepper, Marmite sauce, water and corn flour. Pour mixture into the wok.
5. Put in the chicken and cook till sauce thickens and it’s ready.

Marmite Chicken Sandwich

This is for breakfast. Why marmite chicken?
well, I wanted to cook marmite chicken for dinner but since I didn't have the time to marinate the chicken, I cooked noodles for dinner and reserve this for breakfast.
When we're flexible, there's always possibility of coming up with something new :)

Ingredients:
Chicken meat (de-boned, cut into thin slices)
Tomatoes (cut into thin slices)
Japanese cucumber (cut into thin slices)
Bread (toasted)
Soya sauce
Pepper
Marmite sauce
Honey
Oil
Water
Corn flour


Method:
1. Marinate chicken overnight with soya sauce and pepper.
2. Heat a little oil and stir fry chicken for 1min.
3. Mix marmite sauce, honey, pepper, corn flour and water and pour over the chicken meat.
4. Cook till gravy thickens.
5. Put the sandwich together with cucumber, tomatoes and the cooked chicken meat.

Yee Meen

Yesterday's dinner....
This is another quick dish and I simply love it. You can even smell the noodles from the living room ;p

Ingredients:
Yee Meen (soaked in water for at least 20min)
Carrot (cut into thin slices)
Young corn (cut into slices)
Onion (diced)
Button mushrooms (cut into half)
Crab stick (cut into 3)
Choy Sum

Chicken meat (de-boned and cut into bite size)
Oyster sauce
Chinese cooking wine
Salt
Pepper
Soya sauce
Corn flour
Egg


Method:
1. Heat oil in a wok and stir fry the onions for 2-3min.
2. Add in carrot, corn and button mushroom and stir fry for 2-3min.
3. Add some salt, oyster sauce, soya sauce and pepper for seasoning.
4. Put in the chicken meat and crab sticks. Mix well.
5. Add enough water to cook the yee meen/noodles. Put in the noodles and cook till it boils.
6. Add choy sum and cook for 1min.
7. In a bowl, mix corn flour with a little water and pour this mixture into the wok.
8. Finally, break an egg into the wok and stir while mixture is boiling.

Dinner is ready :)

Stir Fried Chicken with Mixed Vegetables

Apart from tofu, here's the other dish for dinner :)


Ingredients:
Carrot (cut into thin slices)
Young corn (cut into slices)
Chicken (de-boned and cut into bite size)
Onions (diced)
Button mushroom (cut into slices)
Pepper
Soya sauce
Oil
Oyster sauce
Chinese cooking wine
Corn flour
Water


Method:
1. Marinate chicken with soya sauce and pepper for at least 30min.
2. Heat oil in a wok and sauté the onions till fragrant.
3. Add in carrot, corn and button mushrooms. Stir fry with a little salt, Chinese cooking wine and oyster sauce for 2-3min.
4. Add in chicken meat and mix well.
5. Add in some water and cook till it boils over medium-low heat.
6. In a bowl, mix a little corn flour with water and pour this mixture into the wok.
7. Cook till gravy thickens and it’s ready to be served.

Steamed Tofu

One of the dishes for dinner this week. Quick and easy!


Ingredients:
Tofu
Soya sauce
Shallots (cut into thin slices)
Oil


Method:
1. Put a tbsp of soya sauce onto the tofu.
2. Steam tofu for 5-6min. You can also use the steamer while cooking rice. This way, the tofu will be cooked when the rice is done.
3. Heat wok with some oil and fry shallots till golden brown.
4. Dish up and sprinkle on top of the steamed tofu.

Banana Muffins with Crumb Topping

Yup, yup….another baking session for me! I’ve always wanted to try muffins with crumb topping and since this recipe looks quite easy, I thought I’d give it a try. Turns out I don’t really like the topping as I find it too sweet. Well, the topping is made of butter, sugar and a little flour, but I just didn’t expect it to be that sweet.

Overall, this muffin is quite good and easy to make (the finished product might be deceiving and made people think you bought them ;p). Gave one to my col and here’s her detailed comment:

Texture – 95
Color – 90
Decorative – 85
Overall 90 marks…only 1 comment, I think you put too much “bicarbonate/ yeast” .. or banana essence ?

Actually there was no banana essence added, only bananas! But the recipe calls for both baking powder and soda bicarbonate, so that could be the reason for the comment.
Before I forget, the recipe is from allrecipe.com. :)

Fried Rice

I was back to Taiping again last weekend and because mum went for a local trip with her friends to Ipoh, I figured I'd just cook fried rice for lunch. Hope dad finds it OK!

Ingredients:
Cooked rice
Carrots (diced)
Cabbage (cut into small pieces)
Onions (diced)
Dried Chinese Mushroom (soaked till soft and diced)
Dried Shrimps (soaked)
Eggs (beat till fluffy)
Soya sauce
Dark soya sauce
Salt
Sugar
Pepper
Oil
Water


Method:
1. Heat oil in a wok and sauté onions.
2. Add in dried shrimps and stir fry for 1-2min.
3. Put in the carrots, cabbage and mushrooms. Mix well and cook for 3-4min.
4. Season with soya sauce, salt, sugar and pepper.
5. Stir in the eggs. Let the egg cook for a while before mixing it with the vegetables.
6. Add in the rice. Put in some dark soya sauce and mix well.
7. Add soya sauce and some pepper to the mixture.
8. You can add a little water if it gets too dry.
9. Stir fry for another 1-2min and the meal is ready :)

Fish with Onion & Ginger

I’ve finally found an easy way to cook dory fish without that ‘fishy’ smell ;p
It’s good to add more onions and ginger because they give a really nice aroma to the dish.

This picture really doesn’t do justice to the dish ;p
Anyway, it was taken using a handphone so tolerate a bit with the quality la.


Ingredients:
Dory Fish(cut into bite size slices)
Onion (shred into thin slices)
Ginger (shred into thin slices)
Oil
Water
Salt
Soya sauce
Pepper
Chinese wine
Oyster sauce


Method:
1. Rub a little salt and some pepper onto the fish and leave it for ~20min.
2. Heat oil in wok and sauté the onion and ginger till fragrant.
3. Add in the fish slices and mix well with the onion and ginger.
4. Season with soya sauce (not too much since the fish has been marinated with some salt), Chinese wine and oyster sauce.
5. Stir fry for 1-2min. Add a little water.
6. Dish up once it’s boiling.

Wok Bin Chi

Now, just don’t ask me what we call this dish in English or any other language because this is what my mum called it in Cantonese and after thinking overnight I couldn’t come up with any other name, so let’s stick to it. ;p

There are still 2 packets of plain flour (tepung gandum) in the kitchen and it just came to my mind that this would be the perfect dish to make.
We had this for dinner yesterday and this is good for those who are busy since the cooking time takes less than 30min.


Ingredients:
Plain flour (mix with water and a little salt to form a medium thick batter)
Chicken (cut into cubes)
Lettuce
Pumpkin (cut into small pieces)
Onion (cut into small pieces)
Ginger (shred into thin slices)
Garlic (chopped)
Oil
Water
Salt
Soya sauce
Pepper
Chinese wine
Sugar
Oyster sauce


Method:
1. Marinate the chicken with soya sauce, sugar, Chinese wine, oyster sauce and pepper for at least 30min.
2. Heat oil in a wok and sauté the garlic, onions and ginger till fragrant.
3. Add in the pumpkin and stir fry for 3-4min.
4. Put in the chicken and sauté with some salt for 1-2min over low heat.
5. Add water to make the soup and cook till it boils (you can use a bowl to measure i.e. 1 bowl for 1 person and so on.). Season with salt, sugar, oyster sauce, Chinese wine and pepper.
6. Take a ladle full of the flour mixture and put it around the wok (e.g. few cm from the soup).
7. Wait ~1min as the flour starts to “cook”. Then, using a spoon or a wok ladle, ‘move’ the flour to the soup and let it cook together with the soup.
8. Repeat step 6 and 7 until all the flour is used up.
9. Finally, add in the lettuce and cook for 1min and dinner is ready!

This is one of my comfort food. It reminds me of my mum’s cooking which is always simple and nice.

Stir Fry Penne with Vegetables

After experimenting with macaroni and angel hair, now let’s try a new ‘shape’ of pasta, which is the penne. As usual, I like to add in many different types of vegetables and this time, I added some leafy vegetable for a difference. :)

Ingredients:
Penne (cooked per packet instruction)
Chicken (cut into cubes)
Spinach
Grey oyster Mushroom
Carrot (shredded)
Potato (shredded thinly)
Tomato (cut into thin slices)
Yellow bell pepper (cut into thin slices)
Green bell pepper (cut into thin slices)
Onion (cut into thin slices)
Garlic (chopped)
Oil
Water
Salt
Soya sauce
Pepper
Chinese wine
Sugar
Oyster sauce


Method:
1. Marinate the chicken with soya sauce, sugar, Chinese wine, oyster sauce and pepper for at least 30min.
2. Heat oil in a wok and sauté the garlic and onions till fragrant.
3. Add in carrot and potato. Stir fry for ~3min.
4. Put in the green and yellow bell pepper and mushroom plus a little salt and stir fry for 2-3min.
5. Next, add in the chicken and stir fry for 1-2min.
6. Add in the cooked penne and put in some soya sauce, Chinese wine and oyster sauce. Mix well.
7. Add a little water if it’s too dry and continue to stir fry.
8. Lastly, put in the tomatoes and spinach.
9. When the spinach looks cooked, dish up and serve.


For me, pasta never fails to make a decent meal and the reason why I used penne is because we can just eat everything with a spoon. By taking even this into consideration, you can sense how lazy I can get, sometimes...Hahaha...

Chocolate Brownies

Yes, it’s chocolate brownies for last weekend! Looking at the number of steps involved in the recipe here, we know this is fairly simple to make.
http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=1584

The thing is I seldom eat brownies and so I am not sure what’s the right texture for brownies. The top layer was a little hard but everything underneath was very soft. It was like eating a chocolate bar. ;p
So, after cutting them I put them in the fridge for a while and it became more “springy”.
Do not leave it in the fridge for too long or else you might break your tooth trying to take a bite of it. Haha….

Anyone who is on a diet should avoid this at all cost because the 2 main ingredients are chocolate and butter!!! Surprisingly, some people said they liked the texture of the brownies and some said it’s nice :)
So, thanks to this recipe by Amy Beh!

By the way, we’re supposed to bake this in a square baking dish but I only have a round one, so no choice la.

Pineapple Tarts

I am so excited to share this with anyone who loves pineapple tarts and I think this is the first cookie most of us will ‘attack’ during the Chinese New Year :)

We would think it must be very difficult to churn out these lovely cookies and I am of no exception. BUT…after I have tried this recipe, I am telling you it’s as easy as 123, even easier than making muffins!

I wanted to bake some cookies since a friend from church said she likes cookies better compared to cakes and other pastries. So, I thought why not I try make some and let her and the rest try it?? And I’ve always been a fond reader of kuali.com especially Amy Beh’s recipes, so this is where I found this amazing recipe for pineapple tarts.
The best thing is; pineapples were on sale in Tesco. Only MR0.89 for 1 whole pineapple!!! At that time, I was actually trying to imagine how much is the profit margin for those who sell these cookies during the festive season. Hahaha…

Here’s the link to the recipe: http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=1284
It’s so yummy you’ve got to try it and you'll never have to buy pineapple tarts again ever!

Mee Sua

Another new creation! I cooked this for dinner and when VIP saw it, he thought I "ta pao" from outside. Hoho..
Tastes nice :)

Ingredients:
Mee Sua (soak in water for 1min)
Chicken sausages (cut into bite sizes)
Carrot (diced)
Potato (diced)
Tomato (cut into small pieces)
Onion (diced)
Garlic (chopped)
Egg white (x1 and beat till a bit fluffy))
Chinese cooking wine
Soya sauce
Salt
Sugar
Oil
Water

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok and stir fry the garlic till fragrant.
2. Add in the onions, carrot and potato. Stir fry for 3-4 minutes then add in soya sauce and cooking wine.
3. Put in the tomatoes and sausages. Add 1 bowl of water and bring to boil.
4. Add in the mee sua and let it cook for a while. Do not let the mee sua stick together while cooking.
5. Put in the egg white and let it simmer for a while.
6. Add salt and sugar to taste and it’s ready to be served.

Mi Fen/ Bihun Soup

This is a very busy week, so I don't really have time to cook anything fancy (plus with all the baking going on, I think I am doing more cooking than ever!).

Here's a simple dish which I made for VIP's dinner. I had to go out with my friends for dinner and thought maybe I should just cook something for him or else he might end up walloping another mooncake and call it a meal! Haha...

I am glad I cooked this because the corn was actually an experiment but it turned out really nice as it adds a sublte sweetness to the plain soup. So, do not be afraid to try something new when it comes to cooking :) This has always been my motto in the kitchen.

Ingredients:
Mi Fen/ Bihun (soaked in water till soft)
Onion (diced)
Carrot (shredded)
Corn (cut into ~3cm long)
Garlic (chopped)
Shallot (cut into small pieces)
Egg white (x1 and beat till a bit fluffy)
Oyster sauce
Soya sauce
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Oil
Water


Method:
1. Heat oil in wok and stir fry the garlic and shallots till fragrant.
2. Add in the onions and carrot. Saute for 3-4minutes.
3. Add in the soya sauce and oyster sauce to taste.
4. Pour in a bowl of water and let it cook till boil.
5. Add in the corn and mi fen/bihun followed by the egg white.
6. Add salt, sugar and pepper to taste and your meal is ready :)

Vegetarian Stir Fried Macaroni

Here's another quick and easy one dish meal which I've cooked for dinner this week.

Ingredients:
Macaroni (cooked per packet’s instruction)
Corn
Carrot (diced)
Onion (diced)
Garlic (chopped)
Ladies Finger a.k.a. Okra (cut into small pieces)
Tomato Sauce
Chilli Sauce
Sugar
Salt
Oil
Water

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok and sauté the garlic for 1-2minutes.
2. Add in the onions, carrot and corn. Stir fry for 2minutes.
3. Add the okra and cook for another 2minutes.
4. In a small bowl, mix chilli and tomato sauce together with 1tbsp water.
5. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and stir fry for a while. Add more water if too dry.
6. Put in the macaroni, add some sugar and salt to taste.
7. Stir fry for another 2-3minutes and it’s done!

Yam Cake

It was a long weekend with the National Day holiday and that means I have more time to try out something new! I've always loved yam cake and ever since I saw this recipe in Peony's blog, I told myself I got to try this. Surprisingly my mum knows how to make this dish too!

Anyway, since I've bought all the ingredients to make this according to Peony's recipe, I made it according to the recipe. I find the yam cake a bit too sticky and soft.
Guess next time I'll try my mum's recipe!

Here's the link to Peony's yam cake recipe:
http://myculinaryjournal.blogspot.com/2008/03/yam-kuih-n-bento-43.html

Almond- Apple Marble Cake

National Day is also my mum's birthday, so this year my sis and I baked her a nice marble cake. Mum loves butter cake, so I think marble cake is a good choice since it's a more colourful variation of the butter cake :)
My sis is pretty good in baking, so we didn't take any measurement of the ingredients used! Haha... well, we sort of put in whatever we think is suitable. The cake turned out really moist, fluffy and delicious!
Anyway, here's an estimate of all the ingredients (read: agak-agak) ;p


Ingredients:
Self-raising flour (250-300gm)
Eggs (x3)
Butter (200gm)
Sugar (1 cup)
Vanilla essence (1 tsp)
Almond powder (1 tbsp)
Almond slices
Raisins
Apple (x1 and chopped into small pieces)
White wine (1 tbsp)

Yoghurt (70-80gm)


Method:
1. Preheat oven at 190C.
2. Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy and white.
3. Add in egg one by one and mix well.

4. Fold in the self-raising flour.
5. Add in raisins, almond, apples, yoghurt and white wine and mix them together.
6. Pour the mixture into a baking tray and sprinkle the almond slices on top.
7. Bake for ~50-60 minutes. You can use a cake tester to check if the cake is "cooked". The cake is ready when the tester/skewer comes out clean.

*This cake is perfect for afternoon tea :)