Green Tea Chiffon Cake

I used the same recipe for the coffee chiffon cake to make this. Lesson learnt here is to not be greedy! I replaced 1 tbsp of coffee paste with 2 tbsp of green tea powder. I like everything green tea ma, so I put in more loh.

I have reduced the cream of tartar to only 1/4 tsp and it works too. So, next time I am going to reduce it to 1/8 and see if it'll still turn out fine!

The green tea taste turned out to be a little overpowering but most of people who tasted it said it was OK. Hhmm…

Love the texture of this cake :)

Dory Fish with Ginger and Garlic

Simple dinner: vege, fish and tofu.

Here’s one of the dishes I cooked for dinner yesterday. I actually brought the bean paste out of the fridge and wanted to cook the fish with bean paste. Somehow, I don’t know why while I was chopping the ginger, I thought maybe I’ll do something new…..and here goes.


Ingredients:
Dory Fish Fillet (cut into bite size)
Ginger
Garlic
Shallot
Sesame Oil
Black Pepper
Salt
Chinese Cooking Wine
Oil


Method:
1. Chop/mince the ginger, garlic and shallots.
2. Mix all the seasoning + ginger, garlic and shallots with the fish fillet in a bowl.
3. Let it marinate for 30min or so.
4. Heat a little oil on a non-stick pan.
5. Place the fish fillet on the pan and pan fry over low heat. Pour the remaining sauce/marinate over the fish.
6. Cook for ~5min or until fish is cooked.


You can actually just fry the fish first and then cook the sauce with some water and pour it over the fried fish, but I am trying not to pollute my kitchen with too much oil, so this way works for me. ;p

This one gets 8.5/10 from the VIP, so I guess not too bad la for something that I simply cook without any recipe.

When it comes to cooking, my principle has always been this; take the recipe as a guideline only especially if you cook the dish for the first time but you should cook it your own way (add different ingredients or cook with different method). From there, you’ll be amazed how many new dishes you might be able to create! I still remember how a friend said her maid cooked broccoli steamed egg (they’re supposed to be 2 different dishes!). While it may be weird, we might get some inspiration from that mistake and turn it into something new. Who knows….one day, we’ll be eating vegetables steamed egg. Haha…

Banana Muffins

This is VIP and the freshly baked muffin :)

Moist and full of flavor…this is how I’d describe these cute little banana muffins.

I kind of stumbled upon the recipe while looking for a banana muffin recipe but I made modifications to it by adding 2 tbsp of plain yoghurt and 1 tsp of cinnamon powder. The original recipe is from catcancook.com.

It’s super easy to make! Just mix everything together, bake for 20-25min or so and voila! You’ll get these wonderful muffins for tea time (I actually had one for supper ;p).
This one’s definitely for keep!

Lemon Cake

This is another recipe from kuali.com (just type lemon cake in the search box). While I think the cake is nice with its lemon flavor, it can still be improved as I think it’s a bit dry. Well, we’re supposed to keep it for 2 days before eating but I baked it at night and ate it the next afternoon! I had some people asking for the recipe after they tried it, so I guess they must have liked it a lot. I added more lemon juice than the recipe required as I think the lemon taste is really lovely :)

Fried Noodles

Dinner last week but I can’t remember which day ;p


Ingredients:
Noodles (soaked, and then cooked till soft)
Chinese Mushroom (soaked and sliced)
Carrot
Cabbage
Chicken Meat (cut into bite size)
Shallots
Garlic
Dark Soy Sauce
Light Soy Sauce
Pepper
Salt
Water
Oil


Method:
1. Heat oil and saute shallots and garlic.
2. Add in mushroom and stir fry for 1min.
3. Put in carrot and cabbage and stir fry for 1/2min.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Add in noodles and mix well.
6. Season with dark and light soy sauce and mix well.
7. If it gets too dry, add a little water.
8. Stir fry over high heat for 1min and dish up.

Dried Oyster, Peanuts and Mushroom Porridge

It’s been a busy week and I just wanted to cook something simple, nice and nutritious. Porridge won’t go wrong ;p
Since there isn’t much vegetables in the dish, we finished off dinner with a simple bowl of kiwi and pear.

Ingredients:
Brown rice
Peanuts (soaked for a few hours)
Chinese Mushroom (soaked till soft and cut into small pieces)
Carrot (cut into small pieces)
Dried Oyster (soaked and cut into small pieces/own preference)
Chicken meat (I didn’t cut it, just put in the whole piece of chicken breast)
Water
Salt
Pepper
Sesame Oil


Method:
1. Dump everything into the rice cooker except the chicken (add in when it boils).
2. Cook till you get the porridge to the texture of your preference.
3. Season with salt, pepper and a little sesame oil.
Yummy!!!

Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chips

Very easy to make and yet moist and flavorful with the coffee (for coffee addicts, like me, I might add in more the next time I make this cake!). The chocolate chips gives it a better texture too.


Ingredients:
Self raising flour (230gm)
Butter (150gm)
Sugar (130gm)
Egg (4)
Yoghurt (5-6 tbsp)
Coffee powder (4tbsp dissolved in 2-3tbsp of water)
Chocolate chips (100gm)

Preheat oven at 170C.


Method:
1. Beat butter and sugar till light.
2. Add in egg one by one and continue to beat till well combined.
3. Add in yoghurt and coffee mixture. Beat till combined.
4. Fold in sifted flour.
5. Add in chocolate chips and mix evenly.
6. Bake for 40min or until cooked.

Noodles Soup with Chicken Mushroom

I usually let VIP choose what he would like to have for dinner, if I cook ;p It looks like he prefers to have noodles most of the time! I love this soup with the tofu, chicken and mushroom and VIP finished the whole bowl. Mind you, this is a salad bowl!!! Hahaha…


Ingredients:
Noodles (soaked for a while till it’s a little soft)
Chicken Meat (cut into small pieces –marinate with light soy sauce and a little sesame oil)
Chinese Mushroom
Carrot
Cabbage
Tofu
Shallots
Light soy sauce
Salt
Cooking wine
Oil
Water


Method:
1. Heat a little oil and saute the shallots until you smell the aroma.
2. Add in mushroom and stir fry for about 1 min.
3. Add in carrot and cabbage and continue to stir fry for 1min.
4. Season with salt, light soy sauce and cooking wine.
5. Add in enough water for the soup and let it cook till it boils.
6. Add in tofu and chicken meat. Simmer with low heat for 1min or so.
7. Add in noodles and cook till soft. Serve hot.

Fried Rice (Version 2)

Another simple dinner…


Ingredients:
Rice (cooked)
Mixed vegetables
Chinese Mushroom (soaked till soft and cut into small pieces)
Broccoli
Shallots
Chicken sausage (cut into small pieces)
Salt
Light soy sauce
Pepper
Cooking wine
Oil
Water

Method:
1. Heat oil and sauté shallots till fragrant.
2. Add in chicken sausages, mushroom and broccoli. Stir fry for 1min.
3. Add in mixed vegetables. Season with salt, pepper and cooking wine.
4. Add in rice and mix well.
5. Add in light soy sauce (if it’s too dry, you can add in a little water) and stir fry on high heat for 1/2min and it’s ready.

Soybean Noodles (Version 3)

Didn’t I say I love this noodles?? I cooked this last week or the week before last week but was too excited about all the cakes that I baked, so almost forgot about this ;p

This is oil-free. I just put in some shallot, carrot, Szechuan vegetables, tomatoes and chicken meat for the soup and then season it with sugar, black pepper and a little cooking wine. Cook the noodles in the soup till it’s soft and dinner is ready!

Soybean Noodles (Version 2)

Noodles is one of my favourite dish especially this soybean noodles. The smooth texture of the noodles even cooked in the simplest way makes a satisfying dinner for me.
The funny thing is, when we were small, my mum only cooked this for us when we fall sick….hahaha.


Ingredients:
Soybean Noodles
Cabbage
Carrot
Shallot
Egg (1)
Chicken Sausage (cut into bite size)
Salt
Light Soy Sauce
Chinese cooking wine
Pepper
Oil
Water


Method:
1. Heat a little oil and sauté the shallots.
2. Add in carrot and cabbages. Stir fry for 1min.
3. Add in chicken sausages. Season with salt, light soy sauce, pepper and cooking wine.
4. Add in water and cook till it boils.
5. Add in the noodles and let it simmer for a while.
6. Stir in the beaten egg and cook for another 1min and it’s done!

Coffee Chiffon Cake

Last week was all about light and fluffy cakes and this one is definitely the lightest of all. The coffee taste is not too strong and if I make this again, I’ll increase the coffee content by at least 30%. Haha….yup, me coffee addict! I love the texture of this cake even though it’s not as light as the commercial chiffon cake. I’d describe this as “satisfaction with every bite” because I simply love the texture of it!

Since I didn’t have a chiffon cake pan, I used a normal cake pan. Hhmm…not sure if that’s what caused the cake fell flat a little after it has cooled. Any idea???

Cotton Cheesecake

Hurray!!! Finally, a successful cotton cheesecake :) after 2 failed attempts few months back.
I am really happy because this is something that I’ve always wanted to bake but what made me gladder was I finally understood why I failed in the past.

Personally, this is what I’ve learnt:
1. The egg whites need to be beaten until the mixture is stiff. I didn’t understand how egg whites can be stiff but it basically means beat it until it looks like mousse.

2. The egg yolk mixture has to be beaten until it’s creamy and light. When mixing in the flour, make sure it’s mixed evenly.

3. Just fold the egg whites and egg yolk mixtures gently.

VIP gave me 6 out of 10 points and I think it’s an honest feedback. Haha…

The recipe is from kuali.com (just type cotton cheesecake in the search box and you’ll find it. I do not have superfine flour, so I just used self raising flour and also substituted corn flour with custard flour. Yeah…ran out of corn flour too but hey, it turns out well too except the cake is more yellow due to the custard powder.

The best thing about overcoming a failure is that you’ll never be afraid of it again. You bet… I’ll try it again :)

Mixed Green Salad

This is about mixing whatever vegetables you like to eat, drizzle with the dressing, toss and serve! I brought this for church lunch today and one of the sisters asked me if this is some Italian dressing because she thought it was nice. Well, if you realize, I seldom do salads and know nothing much about western style cooking, so I have no idea what Italian dressing is or if there is such a thing ;p Hahaha…
Anyway, I am glad that even the ‘meat person’ VIP likes it :)


Ingredients:
Olive oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
Lemon Juice
Garlic (crushed)
Sugar
Parsley (chopped finely)
Apple Cider Vinegar


Method:
1. Just mix everything together and toss it with the greens.

Don’t ask me about how many tsp or tbsp for those ingredients because I just agak-agak lo…;p

Sponge Cake

Looking at the ingredients and method, you might think this is very easy to make but it’s very deceiving because this is not easy at all!
I tried to bake the Japanese cotton cheesecake twice but it didn’t turn out well both times. So, I thought maybe I should try baking a sponge cake first before attempting that again. I had some free time this afternoon after coming back from church, and start straight with the baking without wasting anymore time ;p

The outcome? Hhmm….one piece is not enough! Haha….yeah!!! Very happy that the cake is a success ;p The aroma is so tempting and I couldn’t help but had 1 whole piece to myself, before dinner time!


Ingredients:
Sugar (130gm)
Egg (4)
Plain Flour (120gm)
Butter (80gm) – melted

Preheat oven at 180C

Method:
1. Beat sugar and eggs till it’s light and fluffy, ~2x its original volume.
2. Fold in the flour.
3. Mix in melted butter till combined.
4. Bake for 30min or until cooked.

Mushroom Carbonara Angel Hair

No, I am not paid to do this....but this creamy carbonara from Campbell is good. :)

So, all I did was just cook the angel hair (I wanted to have it with spaghetti but ran out of stock in my kitchen) and toss it in the sauce. OK la..at least I decorated the plate a bit. Haha...

I didn't feel thirsty after this meal, so I guess probably there is no or maybe only very little MSG is used.

Green Tea Soba in Miso Soup

The soba noodles are from Daiso which I bought last month and I’ve been wanting to cook it for some time. You see, whenever I discovered something ‘new’, I have this urge to cook it the soonest I can. ;p

The packet says green tea soba and the noodles look slightly green in colour, but there is no green tea smell at all. Haha…but it still tastes good, so OK la.
The miso paste is good, and produces this lovely soup to go with the noodles :)

A cup of "kumquat" tea to go with the dinner.

Ingredients:
Green Tea Soba (cooked per packet instruction)
Miso Paste
Chinese Mushroom
Carrot
Shallots
Tofu (cut into small cubes)
Chicken meat (marinate with cooking wine and soy sauce)
Sugar
Water
Seaweed (cut into thin strips)
Lettuce


Method:
1. Boil water in a pot. Add in miso paste, shallots and mushrooms. Cook for ~15min.
2. Add carrot and tofu. Cook for 5min.
3. Season with sugar.
4. Add chicken meat. Cook with low heat for 2min or until chicken is cooked.
5. Put soba in a bowl and pour in the soup.
6. Garnish with seaweed and lettuce. Oishii!

Apple & Orange Salad

Idiot proof salad....I like the refreshing orange juice in this.

Ingredients:
Apples
Oranges
Plain Yoghurt


Method:
1. Cut apples and oranges into cubes.
2. Squeeze orange juice from ½ orange.
3. Mix all in a bowl with plain yoghurt. Chill before serving.

Pandan Butter Cake

I've been wanting to try bake a pandan cake but just couldn't find the time. Since I am done with Sunday School prep, I thought it's time I do something I like this afternoon. Ta-daa....here comes the cake :)

The smell of this cake when it comes out of the oven is simply heavenly. Pandan and coconut milk really goes well together. If you're on diet, you might want to skip this ;p

Ingredients:
Plain Flour (240gm)
Baking Powder (1tsp)
Custard Powder (25gm)
Egg (4)
Coconut Milk (60ml)
Pandan Paste (3/4 tbsp)
Butter (200gm)
Sugar (180gm)

Preheat oven at 170C.

Method:
1. Sift flour, baking powder & custard powder. Leave aside.
2. In another bowl, mix coconut milk, eggs and pandan paste. Leave aside.
3. In a mixer, beat butter and sugar till fluffy.
4. Add in coconut milk mixture slowly and beat till combined.
5. Add in the flour mixture and mix till combined.
6. Bake for 50min or until cooked.

Chicken & Mushroom in Dark Soy Sauce

Tonight's dinner consist of a vegetables dish, chicken herbal soup and this yummy chicken & mushroom in dark soy sauce.

Stir fried cabbage with carrot

Chicken herbal soup

Chicken and mushroom in dark soy sauce

Ingredients:
Chicken (marinate with light and dark soy sauce, pepper, sesame oil and sugar)
Chinese Mushroom (soaked till soft)
Garlic
Shallots
Salt
Sugar
Dark Soy Sauce
Cooking Wine
Corn Flour
Oil
Water


Method:
1. Heat oil and sauté garlic and shallots till you can smell the aroma.
2. Add in mushrooms and stir fry for 1min.
3. Pour in the chicken. Stir fry for 1-2min.
4. Season with dark soy sauce, salt, sugar and cooking wine. Mix well.
5. Add water and cook till it boils.
6. In a bowl, mix corn flour with a little water. Add this into the cooking to thicken the sauce.
7. Once it boils and sauce thickens, dish up and serve with rice.

Apple & Vegetables Salad

Made this as part of dinner.

Ingredients:

Apple

Carrot

Celery

Yellow Bell Pepper

Mayonaise

Lemon Juice

Method:

1. Cut vegetables and apple into cubes and toss with mayonaise & lemon juice.

Vegetables Soup

Tonight's dinner is oil-free. Not a single drop of oil is used :)

I cooked vegetables and fish the usual way....blanched vege in boiling water for a minute or two, then toss with a mixture of light soy sauce & oyster sauce + steamed the fish with preserved bean with ginger and garlic.

Here's the soup:

I love this little pot. It's a gift from my Korean friend, In Soon. Coming to think of it, we're both kind of crazy. I asked if she could help me buy one and she really brought one back from Korea for me! Hahaha....I mean, come on...pots can be bought in any supermarkets ma. Anyway, I don't think we have such authentic one here. This is what the Koreans use to make their soup.

While I was cooking this, it reminds me of those good old times when we spend time cooking dinner together (OK, most of the time she cooks and I just eat la ;p) and complained about work, man, life....;p

Absolutely miss it! Thanks my friend, for the good times and the friendship :)

OK, here's what I had in the little pot, a simple vegetables soup...no kimchi ;p

Ingredients:

Carrot

Cabbage

Szechuan preserved vegetables

Garlic

Tofu

Egg

Black pepper

Sugar

Method:

1. Boil water in pot, put in all the ingredients, except the egg.

2. Cook for 30min or so. Season with black pepper and sugar.

3. Beat the egg, add into the soup. Cook for 1min. Serve hot.