Apple Pie

I love to try new recipes and pies are always a favourite because they look complicated to make but when you actually start doing it, it’s not that scary after all. So, don’t scare yourself and give it a try!
I love the pastry with its crispy crust and the buttery taste! Yummy….but can’t eat too much of it for health reason.

So, here’s a first attempt of apple pie :)


Ingredients:
Plain flour (250gm)
Salt
Icing sugar (3 tbsp)
Butter (150gm)
Cold water (5-6 tbsp)
Apple (3 apples cut into small cubes)
Brown sugar (5-6 tbsp)
Lemon juice (2 tbsp)
Cinnamon powder (1/2 tsp)
Nutmeg powder (1/4 tsp)
Egg (1 egg, beaten)


Preheat oven at 185C.


Method:
1. Put flour into a big bowl/pot and mix with butter until it looks like crumbles. (Use a knife to cut butter into small cubes)
2. Add in a dash of salt, icing sugar and some cold water to form a dough.
3. Wrap in a plastic and put in the fridge for ~30min.
4. Mix apples with brown sugar, a dash of salt, lemon juice, cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder. Leave aside.
5. Take out the dough and roll into 2 round sheets of ~2mm.
6. Line the pie dish with the pastry. Use a fork and poke holes into the pastry sheet.
7. Put the apples into the dish.
8. Cover the apples with the other pastry sheet.
9. Cut off the extra pastry at the sides and use a fork to press the edge of the pastry.
10. Cut a cross in the middle of the pie.
11. Brush the pie with egg.
12. Bake the pie in preheated oven for about 1 hour or until cooked.

Note: You can use this pastry to make other pies e.g. peach, pear, blueberries, etc.

Coffee Cake with Chocolate Rice Topping

Here’s the cake for Sunday church refreshment yesterday. This is made from the ‘fool proof’ recipe which I gave to few of my colleagues with some modifications ;p
You can make different flavor of cakes out of this recipe by adjusting the amount of wet and dry ingredients to produce a balanced mixture.

The coffee flavor is not very strong (for coffee lovers like me), so I think I’ll add more coffee powder the next time I make this. Anyway, the cake is moist and not too sweet, just the way I like it!

Ingredients:
Self raising flour (190-200gm)
Soya bean powder (3tbsp)
(Sift the above 2 ingredients together)
150gm butter
120gm brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
3 tbsp instant coffee powder (mix with a little water to form paste)
4 tbsp plain yoghurt
A little oil
Chocolate rice (optional)

Preheat oven at 170C.


Method:
1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence.
2. Add egg one by one and mix well.
3. Add in the coffee paste and yoghurt and mix well.
4. Fold in the flour mixture (self raising flour and soya bean powder).
5. Pour mixture into a baking dish greased with a little oil.
6. Sprinkle chocolate rice onto the mixture.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40min or until cooked.

Bow Tie Pasta in Tomato Gravy

This dish is actually very colourful if you put enough bell peppers. Most of all, it’s a ‘healthy’ meal with all the vegetables (you can omit the egg if you like).

Ingredients:
Bow tie pasta (cooked per packet instructions)
Tomato (cut into small pieces)
Green bell pepper (cut into thin strips)
Yellow bell pepper (cut into thin strips)
Onion (cut into small pieces)
Tomato puree
Egg (beaten and add with a dash of pepper)
Mixed herbs
Pepper
Salt
Water
Note: Make sure the pasta is soft before you use them for cooking otherwise when you start to stir it too much in the wok, the bowties will start to break….just like what you see in the pictures.


Method:
1. Heat some oil in the wok and sauté the onion for 2-3min.
2. Add in the egg and when it’s cooked, add in green and yellow bell peppers and tomatoes.
3. Stir fry the vegetables for 2-3min.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Add in tomato puree and some water and let it cook till it boils.
6. Put in the pasta, add some mixed herbs and let it simmer for ~2min.
7. Eat. ;p

Mixed Vegetables Fried Rice

A quick dish for dinner with a few varieties of vegetables added. Whenever I cook a one-dish meal, I try to add in more vegetables to make it a more balanced meal :)

Ingredients:
Brown rice - cooked
Chinese cabbage
Carrot (cut into cubes)
Egg (beaten and added with a dash of pepper)
Onion (cut into cubes)
Mushroom
Preserved Salted vegetables (cut into small pieces)
Yam bean (cut into small pieces)
Soya sauce
Salt
Sugar
Pepper
Water (cooked)


Method:
1. Heat some oil in the wok and sauté the onion for 2-3min.
2. Add in the egg and when it’s cooked, add in carrot, Chinese cabbage, mushroom, salted vegetables and yam bean.
3. Stir fry the vegetables for 2-3min.
4. Season with salt, sugar and pepper.
5. Pour in the rice and mix well.
6. Add a little soya sauce. If it’s too dry, add a little water.
7. Stir fry for another 1-2min and it’s ready to be served.

Strawberry Jam Cupcake

Keep bleeding, keep keep bleeding….yeah, I think that’s how the muffins felt. Just look at the photos, don’t they look like they’re bleeding? Haha….

I was thinking what to bake the other day when Lizard Meng suggested muffins with strawberry jam. So, I thought “Why not?”

As for the bleeding, I read in a recipe book which says if we need to bake with jam, we need to use a special kind of jam that’s suitable for baking. Of course I have no idea where to get such special jam, so I make do whatever I can find in Tesco ;p
Not bad la for 1st attempt.


Ingredients:
Plain flour (1 ¾ cup)
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence 80gm butter
1 egg
1 cup yoghurt (I used ½ cup plain yoghurt and ½ cup apricot flavour yoghurt)
½ milk

Preheat oven at 180C.

Method:
1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence.
2. Beat in the egg, milk and yoghurt.
3. Sift flour and bicarbonate soda.
4. Fold in the flour mixture into the wet ingredients.
5. Fill up muffin cup with 1/3 of the mixture.
6. Add some strawberry jam in the centre. Top with the flour mixture until the muffin cup is 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 25min or till cooked.

Mixed Vegetable Porridge

OK, this photo looks so blurred but I didn’t bother to take a few more because I was almost famished by the time I finish doing brisk walking and came back for dinner ;p



Ingredients:
Brown rice
Chinese cabbage
Carrot (cut into cubes)
Yam (cut into cubes)
Chicken meat
Dried scallop
Ginger (crushed lightly)
Salt
Pepper
Water


Method:
1. Wash and rinse rice 2-3 times.
2. Put all ingredients into the slow cooker and let it cook over high heat till boiling, then switch to low/auto mode and cook till done.
3. Season with salt and pepper.

Loh Hon Cai

This is one of my favourite vegetarian dishes but I have not had it for a long time. Well, eoconomy rice stalls don’t always have this and I only go back to my hometown once or twice a month. Each time I am back, there would be too many things I wanted to eat, so I never really thought of this when my mum asked that standard question “What should I cook tomorrow?” ;p

It happens that Sunshine supermarket was selling vegetarian stuff last 2 weeks and I just knew I had to try this dish again when I saw the pre-packed ingredients. VIP, with his “must have meat” in every meal expectation likes it too. So, it means I can cook this again in the future. Haha…

Note: Usually “fatt choy” is added to this dish but I omitted it since it was not included in the pre-packed ingredients.


Ingredients:
Glass noodles
Beancurd stick
Dried Chinese mushroom
Black fungus
Dried lily bulbs
(soak all the above ingredients in water until soft)
Chinese cabbage
Garlic
Preserved beancurd (mashed and mix with some water)
Salt
Sugar
Oil
Water


Method:
1. Heat a little oil in the wok and stir fry garlic till light golden.
2. Put in all the soaked ingredients and Chinese cabbage and stir fry for 2-3min.
3. Pour in the preserved beancurd mixture and season with salt and sugar.
4. Add more water and cook till cabbage is soft and it’s ready to be served.