Baking Frenzy

My hands are itching to create something new for Christmas but the rest of my body is just too darn lazy to get it off my behind and do something! Ok...I think I just have to psych myself to just DO something!! Here's some of the bakings I'd done over the week...nothing much...just something to, hopefully, motivate myself to get baking again... I think all these Christmas hype is seriously putting my spirits in in the damper...oh well....that and some other stuff....:)


I made some chicken potpie and after all the picture taking, didn't realise that I didn't get one that's sliced.. Oh well...people, just have to use your imagination..:) I made the chicken filling using cut to cube chicken breast meat (on hindsight, probably should had used the dark meat instead, juicier!), celery, carrots, potatoes (as a natural thickener), peas, onions and let's see, oh yah, some water. Cook them like you would a stew. I added all that ingredients (albeit it's a lot of ingredients but I wanted to clear all my remainding veges in the crisper) in a pot and cooked till done and let cooled. I had some frozen pastry sheets and used them for the crust. Baked it at 350F till crust turned golden brown. Oh yah, before putting in oven, brushed them with egg wash to get that browness. Turned out great. Ed's not a great fan of potpies but he had no complaints nonetheless. As for Ethan, well....he was a little skeptical of it...like father, like son!! BUT for those who loves potpies, this is one easy way to make one at home and a great way to utilise all those itty bitty veges you have laying around your fridge!

And as I STILL have some more pastry sheets (geez....I really don't know how I got that amount in the first place, must had gone pastry happy and gotten more than I really needed!!!). I made some sausage rolls. Same method as the chicken potpie but just different fillings (...the possibilities....); I made these rolls with some leftover sausages (take the meat out of the casings) and pan fried them with chopped onions, peas, carrots and as a final touch, some spring onions. You can add any herbs you wished, I added some rosemary just coz I like it! :) Let the filling cooled, lay your pastry sheet out and rolled them out a little, add the filling, not too much and rolled it up, smeared some egg wash or water to seal the ending of the rolls. Stuffed it back in the fridge to chill for at least an hour (trust me, your pieces wouldn't disintegrate into odd looking bits). Then take it out to cut them into bite-sized rolls. Egg washed and sprinkled with sesame seeds...or not...your choice. Baked them at 350F till done, about 30 to 45 mins.

And no, I didn't use ANY pastry crust here....I had FINALLY finished all those pastry I had stored in my freezer like I was waiting for some pastry convention to hit town!!! Those are oatmeal-raisin cookies. MY FAVS!!! I would love to share this recipe but I think it's protected by some copyright laws out there since I got it from a cookbook. Actually Martha Stewart's I think, so check it out. Since I'm on the topic, this is one good book to get if you enjoy baking, although I think some of the recipes are a little off(that or my oven's and measuring cups are off, I really don't know), it's overall a really good book. One more thing, I don't know if you can tell, but I made this cookies giant!! First it saves time and some space and also, I'm lazy (if no one realise that by now) . Second, it's just impressive and fascinating to just look at giant cookies. Ok...I just realise how silly that sounds but really, giant cookies are just cool to stare at...makes you wonder what in the world was the baker thinking when he/she made them!! hehehe....I guess I'm the only one who does that....ooookkkk....

Enough of my crazy pre-christmas insanity post, right now attempting to make some christmas cookies...hahahah...let's see how those turn out!!!

The Science of Chicken Rice : Singapore Style

Chicken Rice is one of those universal dish. You can pretty much find a variety of chicken rice dishes from every culture in the world. Where I'm from, Singapore, chicken rice has raisen to the ranks of what best epitomized Singapore cusine despite our multi-cultural society.

Almost everyone I know back home loves a good chicken rice meal, but finding a good place for that is the toughest thing to do. Everyone has their favorites so it's not that easy to agree on one. There're many minute details that people look for in their chicken rice. It could be texture of the rice, the flavor of the rice, or the chicken, the type of chicken used....etc...the list goes on. For me, it's simple... I like my rice flavorful, not too oily and my chicken tender and smooth, not overcooked.



After years of making this dish at home, I finally come up with a method that actually ensure a tender and smooth chicken each time. The only problem to that is that is rather time-consuming. Nevertheless I still make this dish...knowing at the end of cooking I get to sit down and savor a seriously good meal!! That's what motivates me to make it! Oh that and the fact that I'm greedy!



These days you can take a short cut on making the flavored rice with a bottle of ready-made chicken rice sauce. It gives the same authentic Singapore Style chicken rice but you can take the long way if you want to..just for the sake. I usually focus on making the chicken the right way...coz it's nothing worse that eating tough to chew chicken coz of overcooking!

Due to health concerns and the fact I lost the vote, I made this dish with just chicken breast meat but it's best with a whole chicken. Remainding chicken could be used in other dishes; eg, chicken pasta salad. Somehow using just part of the chicken just doesn't make good chicken rice nor tender juicy chicken! *personal opinion* :)

Otak Otak

With the big Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, lots of people probably a little tired of hearing the word T-U-R-K-E-Y! I know I am!! So for all those turkey weary people out there, I've got something to take your mind off that dreaded bird.....



I made Otak Otak with some really fresh snapper that I can't resist buying. It was one huge fish, too big for one sitting and as we all know, with fish that fresh, it's better to consume it asap instead of letting it sit in your freezer forever (which I tend to do!).

I used banana leaves as the wrap but I stuck it into the oven to grill it to give that slightly charred flavor of Otak Otak. It tasted authentic enough but it could had been better...;) I followed the recipe from CyberKauli to the best I could with the availability of ingredients.

Overall, too much prep work to make this treat worthwhile to make on a daily basis...it's nice...NOT THAT nice...:)

Sugar Plums

I never had sugar plums before; plums, yes, but sugar plums...nope. You hear all about them during Christmas time, it's always sugar plums this and sugar plums that! I always thought they were just candy for Christmas! Little did I know that they are actually fruits?!?!?! And after all my years in the US of A, I'd never ever seen a REAL sugar plum. So when I saw that in my local grocery store, I bought a bunch of it! I mean, with a name like sugar plums, you really can't go wrong. And I wasn't....they were sweet!!

Unlike most plums, these sugar varieties have "sweet" skins instead of the tart ones on regular plums. A real and rare treat for me; who loves plums but just hate peeling the outer skin just to get to the sweet fleshy insides. With these sugar plums, all you need is to wash, dry and bite right into it! They are not that big either, smaller than the usual plums bigger than a grape, so you can really get carried away with the eating part.



However I found that they ripened really fast even if you try to keep it refridgerated. Solution to that, buy as much as you think you can consume within the next couple of days and finish it so you wouldn't have to keep. We don't have any problem with eating part since I've got a fruit bat for a son.


The only problem is that plums seems out of season now and I just can't find them in the store anymore!! It was such a short season too...:( Still I'm glad I finally can say, I'd eaten sugar plums and, boy, they were great, not just as a decorative piece!!! :)

Early Thanksgiving

These two weeks had been travelling to one place to another. It was our friends' wedding and it was held in two different places. One was in Oklahoma where they reside and the other was in Kansas City where her family is. We went to Oklahoma last weekend and just over this weekend we were at Kansas for the for big wedding dinner. It was exhilarating but it was also very tiring! In a way, I'm glad it's over.

This is also the friend who makes one great succulent, tender, and perfectly roasted turkey! I really mean it! I hate roasted turkeys at Thanksgiving coz the turkey ALWAYS turned up dry, flaky and really, not appetizing at all!! Eversince he found this recipe last year and made this wonderful roast bird, he has been "crowned" the official roast turkey host!! Which means that every year for Thanksgiving, he will be making his "famous" roast turkey!

However this year, he can't host Thanksgiving on the actual date since he would be having YET another wedding (his, of course)in his hometown, KL. So he decided that he will just have to host one earlier....what would be a better time than celebrating it in conjunction with his "first" wedding...:)

Seriously, check this bird out. Of course with the bird, there's always fixings! He had roasted garlic mashed potates (my fave!) WITH homemade gravy (WONDERFUL), asparagus wrapped with bacaon simmered in some Thai Chilli sauce (my husband's fave and our friend's original recipe), buns, green bean casserole, and bread pudding AND lots of wine!! I mean, loads!! I loved it!! Every thing was just wonderful, great food and most of all, great company! You can't beat that!



Just look at my greedy boy's face staring the turkey down and you know you did good!! Ethan's not very enthusiastic when it comes to meat but check out his bulging eyes on his gleeful face....he can't wait!!! He actually hopped into the chair on his own and waited for FOOD!!!



But my friend being the budding photographer that he is, decided that he want to set up his equippment to take the pppuuuuurrrrrrrfffeeeccctttt Thanksgiving picture. Ethan's remark on that...."NNNNOOOOWWWWWWWW......ON THE TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!" Oh yah...:)

Woody

Woody it is....I had mentioned that Ethan's Halloween costume was NOT to be Buzz Lightyear. Well....the next best thing, Woody from Toy Story. I didn't decide on Woody initially coz I just thought it was such a cliche. I mean, we live in Texas, and dressing as a cowboy, well, you know what I mean. :) But Ethan actually looked so cute in it!!

Recently Ethan has developed a real sense of self-awareness. It's really kinda of enduring but he seems to have taken a negative outlook towards it. So right now, we are teaching him that it's ok to laugh at oneself and it's not a bad thing to have a sense of humour. He's still working on it..:)



We tried to take a "good" pic of him but Ethan was just too "shy" to pose for the camera. In the end, we decided that the only way that we were only take ANY pics was just let him be and kept snapping at the camera and prayed we get at least ONE good pic!!!



Ethan suddenly got the case of the "shy-ness" and didn't really know what he wanted to do. He was so conscious of all of us making a big fuss over him. What with our gushing, fussing, outbursts of delights and squealing, it was just too much althogether for him to take. I guess he just didn't know what to make of it! hehehe



In the end, the only "good" pic of him came when we were at the Arboretum. He just loves pumpkins, just don't ask me why....hehehe.. Overall I think he enjoyed his Halloween, although he's still having some night terrors about some jack-o-lanterns he had seen somewhere......poor baby!

PS: For those curious about his missing cowboy hat. Well...it's extra which means it doesn't come with the outfit, to be bought separately. And knowing Ethan, that hat wouldn't be on his head but in my hands, I'll be carrying it!! So NO!

Apple Crumble Coffee Cake

 
  

First Timer's Wedding Cake

One week researching on the internet and books, three days coming up with the actual design on blueprint and planning, plus three more days of actually making it in various stages.....this is the outcome............

Yup, I made a wedding cake for a very close family friend. They are FINALLY tying the knot, so why not! This is also my first attempt of making a fondant type cake. I made everything from scratch, except for the flowers, I didn't grow them!!! :) I didn't tell them about the cake coz I don't want to dissapoint anyone if it turned out to be a disaster and I didn't have a cake to give when they expected it. Well...it turned out to be a lovely surprise for them...they didn't expect it...LOL



I did so much research on the type of cake that I was really really stressed out! It also had to be assemble over the course of three cakes. So lets say that I screwed up on day three...I'm pretty much done and over with!!! Didn't have the time to do any thing else...and all effort would have gone down the drain!

The toughest part, surprisely, was baking the cake itself. I guessed I was a little over confident with the cake part since I bake a fair amount of it with no major disaster. The part which I thought would most likely to fail turned out to be the "easiest".

Of course, by the end of the whole thing, I was totally exhausted to say the least and was not really paying a whole lot of attention to what I'm doing. Main goal at the end was just finished up with whatever and slap it aside!! Hehehhe...bad attitude but with barely six hours of sleep each day and having to do everything else...it was definintey a brain drain!



Ed thought it was pretty good especially for a first-timer and asked if I was gonna start a new profession. Sure....that and find a cure for Cancer and AIDS, end world hunger, create world peace...oh yah oh yah.....find time to sleep...:)

Just for you guys, N & K, congrats again!!!! See ya this weekend!!! :)

PS: Did I mention I LOVE FONDANT!!!! They are like foundation, pretty much cover up MOST "blemishes"!!! ;)

PSS: San, CONGRATS AGAIN on your baptism!! Sorry that I didn't know....I'm a lousy friend!! :(

Arboretum in Autumn

 
  

To Infinity And Beyond......

Soooo Halloween's almost here...and still no Halloween cupcakes to boot. I'm a wreck! On the bright side, I think Ethan's finally "settled" on ONE costume! As you can see, it's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command/Toy Story. Doesn't matter.... COZ tomorrow's gonna be one hot day so this outfit wouldn't work after all. I got this costume about a month ago and debating to keep it till today (yah, I've to wait till the every last second to do this *sigh*). I decided to...not keep it!! It's just way too stiffling to wear that in the heat and my poor boy would be sweating like crazy! It's gone; I have returned that to Disney. NOTE TO SELF: NOT GOING TO BUY ANYTHING FROM DISNEY ONLINE AGAIN, I WAITED ON THE PHONE FOR 1 FULL HOUR FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!It's too ridiculous!!!!

Saying that, I think I'm going to totally enjoy this weekend. I've planned out my schedule for it and hopefully I can keep to the timetable. *cross fingers* It's going to be fun, there's nothing better than Halloween. It meant that Thanksgiving's not too far and of course, Christmas would be here in a bit...oh lovely!!!! Besides, it's also Daylight Savings, so we get an hour back....WOOOOHOOOOOOOO......now...to get my son to understand that he needs to sleep an extra hour on Sunday! :)

Tune in for Ethan's final Halloween's costume...:)

Picnic At the Park

We are having some seriously great weather here in Texas right now!! No kidding!! After a really really long (never-ending it seems) and sorching summer, Fall has finally come to North Texas!! HOORAY for Mother Nature....I guess you haven't forgotten us..:) Just check out the bright blue sky...and did I mention...great cool weather?? :) Ok...'nuff said....

Following our usual Monday ritual, Ethan and I went to the Arboretum for some fall activities there and to meet up with some friends. He loves that place; he could run till his heart content, splash as much water as he wants, chase as many squirrels and birds till they are totally terrified of him (SIGH) and pick up as many bugs as he could find (EEEWWWWWW.....), what's there not to like! And as usual, Ethan gets to choose the "theme" for his face paint!



The past week was a spider and he wanted it blue...hmmm...a very creative mind.... As I wanted to take a good picture of Ethan, I told him he needed to stay put for a while like he does during "night night". Soooooo Ethan thought he might as well pose like he's taking his nap as well. So there you got it, a pretend napping position with a nibbled apple. Needless to say, the minute the shot was taken, he had taken off like lightning!!

Let's see what tomorrow will bring....I heard it's gonna be another great day...boy, can't wait to picnic again....on a negative note... my "famous" pumpkin bread took a "fall". For some reason, all the bread I made today collapsed after it was cooled. Hmmm...I guess no pumpkin bread to give out tomorrow when I meet the mothers....but I think I'll do it AGAIN later tonight...I really don't know what happened, it never happened before. Guess there's always a first....hmph!

Of Things Lycopene

These days people are more and more aware of what they are putting in their bodies. Thank goodness for TV and endless researches (trivial it seems they are) out there, people are getting more involved in making the right health choices.

Nevertheless we still can't get over certain food dislikes even though they are "supposedly" good for you. My husband, Ed, seems to have a distinct dislike for tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato-based sauce and even ketchup, well, he would only eat it with fries or eggs. Most of the time, Ed would avoid it like the plague! Because of it, I have devised many clever disguises for the tomatoes so that Ed would eat it.

Now you would be wondering why in the world would I be "forcing" him to eat tomatoes. Why not just let him be. Well, other than tomatoes, he also doesn't like/eat if he could green veges unless if they are deep fried, he also doesn't like eggplants, fruits, well actually, most veges in general. So why tomatoes in particular?? Reason=LYCOPENE. It's a powerful antioxident which in a recent research could prevent prostate cancer and various other cancer as well. Now tell me, wouldn't that be a good incentive enough to eat your tomatoes!! :)

So with all these "disguises", Ed would eat tomatoes and sometimes not even realise that he did eat it! What a laugh. Probably he had a bad experience with tomatoes once, who knows, the point is, what he doesn't know he wouldn't stop himself from eating it! Thank goodness Ethan loves his tomatoes...maybe got that from his mommy??? ;)

As for the picture above, it's a grilled open face tomato-cheese sandwich. I sliced some homemade maple-oat wheat bread, some roast beef on top, add slices of tomatoes and then a slice of cheese, placed in the grill and just melt the cheese, ready to be serve. It's just that easy.

Pandan Buns

The wonderful aroma from baking these buns is simply incredible....that is if you like the fragrant leaves of the screwpine plant, better known as pandan. Other than being a natural roach repellant (what's there not to like already), it also emits a sweet smell when cooked. Simply delightful!



So wonderful that I decided to post TWO pics of it!! LOL If only there's such thing as aroma-net, that would be so awesome! :) Nevetheless, it's a pretty easy recipe, no major cleanup since I have a breadmaker which kneaded and proofed the dough and all I did was mould, proof a little more and into the oven it goes. I used the sweet bread recipe from KC and just added a little pandan essence and paste to get that bright green color. Just amazing, for those pandan lovers out there, try this out! Goes great with butter if you like but my husband likes it as it is.

Snow Skin Mooncakes

YIPPPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a total of two failed attempts in one week plus one pitiful attempt last year, I finally did it!! I finally succeeded in making a batch on Mooncake Day itself!! :) Took more effort and time than I expected but I did it, I did it!!!!

It was a different recipe from what I tried before and this one is a definite keeper!! The texture is like that of mochi, slightly chewy yet very soft, almost like a melt in your mouth sensation. It's not too sweet which made a refreshing difference from the usual ones.

I made two types of snowskin mooncakes; one pandan/screwpine flavor and the other, almond flavor. I added the different essence in each and had only red bean paste for both. I was truly surprised at the end result, it was much better than I expected, a real treat for Ed and Ethan!

We "celebrated" our Mid-Autumn Festival with Ethan walking his little battery operated musical "lantern", compliments of a dear friend, L. Ethan walked around the neighbourhood and had fun, so say the least. He had some mini mooncakes that I had also moulded just for him, it was so funny, coz all he wanted to do was hold them in one hand and hold his lantern in the other!! Oh well...one way of celebrating Mooncake Fest!!


Of all, I'm most grateful to one friend in Singapore who generously sent me this mooncake mould, a mooncake cookbook, plus lanterns. Thanks Linda, you know who you are!! I truly appreciated what you did!! And we definitely had a great time! I would like to dedicate these mooncakes to you and your husband, have a great Mid-Autumn Fest! :) Take care!

Last of the Summer Cupcakes

Yup, the last of the summer berries are almost gone. You can still find some residual summer berries but these days, plums, plum-related fruits (eg, plouts) and varieties of apples are now in season.



These are some of lemon cupcakes I had done before summer ended although Texas weather still feels a whole lot like summer. I still need a lot of practice in decorating with frosting so I guess I'll be doing some other cupcakes for Fall.



After a few disasterous attempts of creating rosettes from my darn piping piece, I decided that fruits would be a better "decoration" piece...besides, I like the whole berry decor...:)

For those who are interested in the lemon cupcake recipe, I used the basic cupcake recipe from 500 Cupcakes and added a little of Boyajian Lemon Oil instead of the vanilla essence that was asked for. I also switched from plain flour to cake flour making it a lighter and fluffier cupcake.

As for the frosting, it's a mascarpone frosting instead of the regular cream cheese frosting or buttercream. I used 1.5 cups of mascarpone and 1 cup of confectioners sugar, beat them well with a mixer till fluffy, about 2-3 mins.

Eggplant Stir Fry

I love my eggplants but I just feel I don't know enough eggplant recipes to really explore all its potential but nevermind, I do what I can for now...:) This dish goes real well with white rice (staple food in this household) and most of all, satisfied most of the food groups required for a healthy balance. Even for Ed who claims he doesn't like eggplants (although I had caught him eating AND even ordering it when we eat out!!!) likes it! Most of all, it's rather easy to make, so that takes a bit of thinking work out of the equation!

Recipe
Ingredients
-4 Japanese Eggplant
-Shrimps, Shelled
-Green Onions, diced
-Garlic, minced
-Oil
-Mushroom flavored Sauce
-Sesame Oil
-Salt, Sugar and Pepper

Method
-Rinsed and dry eggplants, slice diagonally.
-At this point, you can either do a quick dip in hot oil or place them lightly salted, peppered and olive oiled in the oven for about 10 mins. Either way's fine.
-Heat very little oil (approx 1/2 tsp) in a wok, add garlic and shrimps.
-Fry till shrimps are almost done, add eggplants.
-Quickly seasoned it with mushroom sauce, sesame oil, salt, sugar and pepper and toss a couple more times before adding in the green onions and then dishing out to plate for serving.

Do Not Disturb : Art in Progress

It's funny how kids see things; all so innocent and so pure. Everything's beautiful or icky and even when it's icky, it's totally fascinating!! When Ethan is finger painting, he doesn't want help from mommy except for the cleaning up! *sigh* He's in total concentration of what he's painting and regardless how it looks, it's always gift worthy!! :)





Ethan was making a card for his grandpa(gong gong)in S'pore and this was one of the many he had done!! ehehhe...in the end he decided that he would give these paintings for his daddy instead while he made another card with stickers for grandpa!!

And for those who are interested, this easel from Ikea is great for kids Ethan's age coz it's the right height for them to reach and paint/draw/doodle at eye level. It's also a chalk board on the other side. A great "tool" around to calm a crazy kid.

Special Salt Stir Fried Salmon

Even if you don't like fish, you gotta like this! I usually eat another version of this at our fave chinese restaurant and apparently never crossed my mind to try and replicate the dish. I guess it was easier to eat there!!

Then one day, with all the exhausted salmon recipes I had done and with even more salmon fillets left in the freezer, a spark of idea came to me, why not make that dish at the chinese restaurant, the one we ALWAYS order. I mean, it seems enough, although they always use rings of squids, sort of like fried calamari without the marinara dipping sauce.

So I lightly battered the salmon pieces and deep fried them quickly to get the crisp coating. And then add them together with the other veges that I had quickly flash fried on high heat. The verdict, the little picky eater loves it! He can't get enough of it, in fact, that was the only thing he ate, he didn't even want his rice!! LOL it was so funny. Ethan kept asking me if it was chicken and I told him yeah and now he's totally obsessed with it. He would point to a dish, asked if it was chicken and asked if it was crunchy crunchy (I nicknamed the battered fish "crunchy crunchy"). HA HA HA! What a laugh! So now when he's doubtful of a particular food, I would just tell him it's crunchy stuff and his whole face lights up and grabs the food and starts chomping it down like there's no tomorrow! So much for honesty...:) Hey, at least that gets him to try out different food without pre-judging them...which he tends to do!

Speical Salt Stir Fried Salmon (Please don't ask me why they called it that way, they just do, and I'm only the translater)
Ingredients
-Salmon fillets, rinsed and pat dried
-1 Large white onion
-some Green Onions
-Jalopenos/dried red chillis, totally optional but gives a great flavor to the food
-Salt and Black Pepper to taste
-Dash of Five Spice Powder, again, very optional

Batter
-Glutinous Rice Flour
-Ice water

Method
-Add enough flour and water to make a thin batter. Too thick and you get a thick coating.
-Slice the fish and lightly season them with salt, pepper and five spice powder(optional)
-Slice the onion and green onions and jalopenos (optional). Or break up the dried chillis(optional)
-Heat oil for deep frying the fish or use a deep fryer. Done when the batter is cooked. Set aside.
-With a little oil in wok on high heat, add sliced white onions and jalopenos till slightly smoking (open the windows for better ventilation or else you would be choking along at this moment).
-At this point, add some salt and pepper and stir.
-Add the cooked batter fish and give it a quick whirl.
-Ready to serve.

Notes: There's no measurement for the flour and water coz it depends on what kind of batter you want. You can change how thin or thick the coating would be with a regular spoon, the amount of coating on the spoon when dipped into the batter will give you an idea what it would be on the fish. I used Glutinous rice flour coz that keeps the fish real crispy without being heavy. The thinner the batter, the crispier it is. All has to done in a high heat to try and imitate what most chinese called "wok breath". This dish needs that! But due to the limited heat factor with regular home stove, it's impossible to replicate that unless you get a commerical stove top with at least 300,00 BTU...;) But that's ok...you use what you got and PRAY for the best and so far, this dish's still good...:)

Sambal Dried Shrimps

Inspired by Ching of Little Corner of Mine, I've decided to make Sambal Dried Shrimps with a recipe given to my husband by his family. I had failed miserably before and daren't try it again.

It was so long ago that I had since tasted this sambal that for the love of it, I couldn't remember how this sambal was supposed to taste. There I was, stirring and stirring, getting my husband into the kitchen to keep tasting just so I could get the flavors right! It was just too funny!! And all my husband would say that he thinks that it needed more sugar. Ok...if any one who knows Ed, he's a sucker for sweet stuff, so I was doubtful to trust him......

In the end, I decided it was just enough sugar, I don't want to turn this dish into dry fried sugar with dry chillis which was what we would end up with if I didn't put an end to his "I think we need more sugar".



With all my greediness, I ended up with more sambal than we really can consume. So went into this baking frenzy to use as much of it as possible. As you can see, I made some Sambal Dried Shrimp Pao/Bun. It was actually pretty good. The down side to all these, my little boy couldn't eat any of it, it was just too spicy for his palate. Oh well.....nevertheless Ed ate all up!!! :) Good for him!

Raisin Cinnamon Bread

Recently I managed to procure a copy of Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, it came highly recommended from a friend. I read that book TWICE during the weekend and love it!! The pictures were lovely, recipes were easy (well, easy when it's in print!) and I can't wait to start making every one of those recipes in it.

Somehow this particular recipe was just calling out my name, I was hooked, I needed to create this recipe, even when I'm feeling a little under the weather. I couldn't wait to smell the cinnamon and all-spice rafting throughout the house, those smells always bring back memories of christmas pasts. This was better than any medication for my pounding congested head.

I made this bread, breadmaker-free, it really made me appreciate my breadmaker even more!! :) The overall result was delightful and even though it did nothing for my physical well-being, at least I felt grateful that at least my boys had a great breakfast feasting on the bread!! :)

Note: The amount of sugar asked for this recipe was, in my opinion, way too much, I cut down almost to half of it which, in retrospect, was a good decision. And brown sugar instead of the regular white one called for in the recipe is what they depicted in the picture. I also halved the recipe since it was way too much for my small family. Result, it was not as easy as I thought....;) but then, I wasn't thinking with a clear mind either!

Marbled Eggs

I had some leftover sauce from the last time I made Soy Sauce Chicken, it was too little to make another chicken/pork dish and too pathetic to be left in my freezer waiting for another day to come back when I make another soy sauce chicken again.

What I did was used all the remaining sauce and made Soy Sauce Marbled Eggs with it. It actually turned out quite flavorful! The sauce was perfumed with cinnamon sticks, star anises, cloves, chinese shaoxing wine, chicken stock(from cooking with chicken) and of course, soy sauce, both light and dark. The eggs infused with all the flavors were, in my opinion, better than the "traditional" marbled tea eggs. And the reduced sauce for this dish white rice tastes simply delightful!

Soy Sauce Marbled Eggs
Ingredients
-4 Cups of water
-2 cinnamon sticks
-4 cloves
-2 star anise
-1 cup dark soy sauce
-1/2 cup light soy sauce
-1 cup of sugar/brown sugar/rock sugar, amount varies on how sweet you want it to be
-1/3 cu p of shaoxing wine
-Eggs, of course

Method
-Put all the first 8 ingredients in a pot, bring it to a boil and then lower to simmer. At this point, you can add chicken for soy sauce chicken and cook till done (that's entirely a different post altogether since getting the "perfect" chicken is another story..:))
-Taste the sauce to adjust accordingly and then add raw eggs, still in their shells, into the simmering brew.
-Once the eggs are hard-boiled, take them out and gently crack the shells without removing any of it.
-After that, put the eggs back into the sauce and simmer for a little over 5 mins and off the heat. Let the eggs sit in the dark sauce for about 1/2hr at the least.
-Once ready to eat, remove the eggs and heat up the sauce with no eggs in them.
-Remove the shells from the eggs. You should get the marbled effect and are ready to be eaten.
-Serve the sauce aside from the eggs, to be drizzle onto white rice.

Tofu Hot Pot

My attempt at Tofu Hot Pot, well, actually my excuse to use my new claypot that I had painstakingly brought back home from Singapore during my last trip there. Thankfully it wasn't broken and I was able to experiment with it! It was a Tanyu Claypot and supposedly to be built a little more reliable than the regular stuff.

The first few try-outs with my claypot were disappointments, somehow the claypot didn't really impress me that much. It was mediocre to say the least. Accordingly to my mom, I was not using the claypot the way that it was might to. Hmmm...in any case...

I decided to simplify my techniques and get back to basic with the claypot. This time is a tofu recipe and pretty much you can't do wrong with it. I cooked everything inside the pot and well....it tasted good and all but I still don't see the "magic" of this particular claypot. Probably I was just expecting too much! hehehe...

Tofu Hot Pot recipe
Ingredients
-1 pack pre-fried Tofu
-4 artificial crab meat, filament style
-1 carrot, sliced
-1 medium onion
-2-3 spring onions
-1 tsp minced garlic
-Mushroom Flavor Sauce
-stock/water

Method
-Cut the tofu in triangles, slice the carrot and onion and minced the garlic.
-Heat oil in claypot at medium heat. Stir in the garlic till fragrant but not brown.
-Add carrot and onions into it and stir till a little done.
-Add tofu and crab into the pot and a little stock/water.
-Add mushroom sauce and sugar to taste.
-Cover and simmer for 15mins, add spring onions and stir for about 2 minutes.
-Serve as it is.

Hokkien Prawn Mee Soup

This is another favorite in the T household. I make this one dish meal about twice a month. This is another easy peasy dish; no fuss and you get everything in one bowl!

A commonfare back home, I used to eat it almost once a week and when I left the country, boy, did I miss it so! You never know what you truly have till you don't have! My fave was this one at Beach Road. I had it when I came back for a visit the first year I was out of Singapore. It was this good old ORIGINAL Kopi Tiam style coffe shop by the road and it was a real dark, kind of dodgy looking place. I can still remember thinking what the heck I was doing there when I can get Prawn Mee almost anywhere...some place with air condition would be good! In any case, when the nooddles came to our table, I was kinda surprised to see what's in it. Most of the time you get a few slices of pork and scanty pieces of prawns. But lo and behold, the bowl contained more than that, not only they had used whole tiger prawns but also pig's tail as well! And when I tasted the soup, I will never forget it, it has a clean taste of pork and seafood broth and despite the pig's tail being in there, it was not at all oily. I love it! I could had been greedy and ordered a second bowl just for the sake, but I didn't. Some things are best left at the minimal, overdosing it kinda spoils the whole effect! :)

After having that, I was determined to find out the best way to replicate this delicacy. Over the years I learnt from a some great friends who had generously taught me their family recipes and from there I'd diversified. I had re-adjusted and "created" a recipe that I like. So far, I'd no complaints, other than for people who are allergic to prawns! Yah..that would be a problem! I think the main "ingredient" for this dish is to get the freshest ingredient possible. If you're going to make a broth out of it, bet as well make it a good one!

Hokkien Prawn Mee Soup
Ingredients
-1 lb fresh medium-sized (at the very least)prawns/shrimps with heads intact
-1-1.5 lb pork ribs, washed and trim most fat off
-Fresh Bean Sprouts, rinsed and tailed if wish
-Water convulous/Kang Kong, cut and rinsed thoroughly
-Fried Onions
-Oil
-Dark Soya Sauce
-Salt, Sugar and Pepper
-Hokkien Mee/Yellow Noodle, homemade or pre-packed

Method
-Rinsed the prawns, and peeled the shells and head and leave it aside.
-Heat 4 TBSP of oil in a stewing pot, once hot enough, add all the prawns' heads and shells into it and fried till fragrant. Crushed the heads and shells with a potato masher (most effective I found) as you fry.
-Add water into the pot once the prawn remnants are red and cooked. Amount of water depends of how much you need for 4-6 servings.
-Add in the ribs and bring it to a boil and then put it to simmer for about 2 hrs or till ribs are tender.
-In that duration, cook the peeled prawns in the same broth and leave it aside once done.
-Once the ribs are done, add some dark soya sauce for a darker colored soup and add some salt and sugar for taste.

Putting them together
-Blanched some sprouts in the same broth, leave it aside.
-Blanched some water convulous in the same broth and again, set aside.
-If you're using pre-packed noodles, blanched them quickly in plain boiling water to rid of excess oil. Set aside into individual bowls.
-Placed some sprouts, water convulous and prawns on top of the noodles.
-Add boiling soup stock into the noodle bowl and some ribs to accompany that.
-To serve, add fried onions and dashes of white pepper as toppings.
- Ready to eat! :)

Note: I chose ribs instead of sliced pork loin coz I felt it was easier and have more flavor. Personally I used homemade noodles since it was a lot more convienent for me to make it.

Asian Pear Soup

Two years ago one of New Year's resolution I made was to make an effort to make more nutritious type soup. Sounds a little corny but I was having a baby and being brought up drinking home made soups which claimed all kinds of cure-all-illnesses herbs, I thought it might be a good "tradition" to pass on to my little one. Now, one problem, I didn't know how to start and what "herbs" to use, it was all so complicated. Thank goodness I could depend on my grandma as a main source but she didn't know the English names for the herbs used and I didn't know if I can find those "herbs" using my brand of Cantonese. But I was determined and hence began my journey....

I started looking into books; cookbooks to be specific and found that there were quite an amount of chinese herbal soup cookbooks (very specific right??) out there. And the cherry on the top was those books were also written in English (figured for people like me...hehe). They helped A LOT!! Since then I'd accumulated a number of these books to help with my herbal soup culinary journey.....................lol

These days, rather than opening a can of cream of something (which I often did) or making wonton soup/vege soup with canned chicken stock, I would just make one of these "specialty" soup using my trusty slow cooker. Most of these soups takes a while and what could be easier than putting everything in one pot and leave it till dinner time! It's just as simple as that.

Recently I started preparing this particular soup coz Ethan started to enjoy having soups! Funny chap! I used to make a slightly modified version making into a tea for Ethan...easy consumption! As the post title mentioned, this is Pear Soup. Yes, Pear Soup, using asian pear to make into a savoury soup. Pear Soup supposedly helps rid of coughs and nourish the lungs, extremely helpful for people with coughs, minor respiratory problems, an overall goodness!! hehe...The herbs used to compliment this soup were chosen to enhance that effect. I don't know how true the claims are but so far it'd worked on my boy who had, in the past, issues with dry coughs, persistent coughs that wouldn't go away without constantly taking synthesized drugs!! Besides, get him into a habit of soup drinking too...:) A tradition hopefully he would carried onto his own family as I had...

Asian Pear Soup (4 Servings)
Ingredients
-1 Asian Pear, peeled, cored and cut into quarters
-Carrots/Apples/or both, peeled, cut into quarters ( I used carrots here)
-5-6 pieces of ribs/neck bones/half lean loin of pork, blanched to rid of "scum" and then washed under cold water.
-1 handful bitter apricot kernels/chinese almonds/bei xing, rinsed
-1 handful sweet apricot kernels/chinese almonds/nan xing, rinsed
-3-4 pieces Solomon's Seal/Yu Zhu/Yok Chok, rinsed
-3-4 dried red dates/hong zao, pitted and rinsed
-5-6 honeyed figs, rinsed
-Small handful chinese wolfberries/gei chi, rinsed
-1 medium sized dried tangerine peel/chen pi, soaked and the white pith scraped away
-Salt, optional! (I prefer mine with some sea salt)

Method
-Have a slow cooker ready, add everything into it and add enough water to cover all the ingredients.
-Set it on high for 3 hours and then on low for 2 more hours. Or at low for 6-7 hours. Add salt in soup before scooping out to serve. You don't want the salt to absorb into all those ingredients.

Note: The herbs added are from personal concoction and not "dangerous" to consume unless you're allergic to them! Used lean pork, seems to give the best clear soup and it's preferred since it's "neutral" in properties unlike chicken which can be a little too "warming" for this soup. This soup will result in a rather sweeter soup than most are accustomed to for a "savoury" soup but not overwhelming that it becomes a dessert.

Medicinal Properties (from various sources)
-Both types of apricot kernels/chinese almonds are said to have healing properties for respiratory problems, usually used as a remedy for severe colds, coughs, dry throats, laryngitis and asthma. They are also use in equal amounts together.
-Solomon's Seal also has similar properties as apricot kernels and generally use to treat illness related to the lung and throat.
-Tangerine Peel is used to counter the oiliness of the soup (the meat) and also believed to be good in treating coughs and colds. Also gives a citrusy flavor to the soup. To be used sparingly as it might be overwhelming and to take the bitter white pith off as it will turn the soup a little bitter.
-Dates in general is to emit natural sweetness to the soup although believed to increase energy levels as well.
-Chinese wolfberries is also used to give a little sweetnesss to the soup. It's traditionally used to treat diabetes as well as improve vision. Can be eaten uncooked as well if wished. :)
-Asian Pears are known to moisten the lungs hence believed to treat dry coughs and colds. It's also known as a "coolant".

Overall this is a "cooling" soup and helps in, particular, coughs and colds. I usually make this every other week and maybe not make it too much in the winter since the body then will need more "warming" soups/teas.

Vegetarian Night

Divertion: Before I go on, I want to say what a beautiful glorious day today is!!!! Perfect cool weather; not too cold, not too hot! Perfect blue skies that make you want to just stay out door and have a leisurely picnic by a perfect newly mowed green lawn! Feels like beginnings of Autumn!! My favorite season!! LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!! All I want to do is bake and bake and bake!! LOL I don't know what yet but I think I'll come up with something and better now and later with the great weather as an inspiration and motivation!





Every now and then we have what I would call pseudo vegetarian night. Pseudo because it's not ALWAYS 100% vegetarian, I would say, 90% vegetarian?? Anyway, last Saturday night was one of those nights. We usually have it once a week (well, at least I try to make it once a week!!) and I just used whatever veges I had left in the fridge before doing grocery. You know, like a "cleansing" for the fridge AND the body!! :)

I made these two dishes and a soup to go with plain white rice. It was really tasty and we pretty much finished everything! And the biggest surprise is that my boy who's usually picky with what he eats would actually eat the veges AND drank the soup (chinese pear soup, to be posted later!) and asked for more! Now he couldn't stop asking for soup for each meal!!! LOL!! What a funny chap! Oh yah, did I mention that Ethan loves to drink his soup off the big soup ladle????

Sesame Garlic Spinach recipe (serving 2 adults + 1 fussy toddler)
Ingredient
-1 bunch of spinach
-2 pods of garlic, minced
-1.5 TBS sesame oil
-Sea Salt (I always use sea salt, but use whatever salt you have at hand)

Method
-Wash all the gritty sand from the spinach, blanched them in boiling water and removed them into a colander to drain.
-Then using a muslim cloth, squeeze all the water from the cooked blanched spinach. Try to squeeze as much of the liquid from it as possible.
-Cut the dried spinch into bite size pieces and put in on a plate.
-At low heat, add sesame oil and garlic at the same time. Sesame oil has a low smoking point andwill start to smoke at even a low temp which is why add the garlic together to get a good infusion and that will also garanteed that the garlic's cooked.
-Once the garlic's cooked which you would know from the immediate smoking from the oil, removed from heat and add enough salt to taste.
-Immediately pour this infused oil into the drained spinach and mixed it all up. Add toasted sesame seeds if wished for garnish or just for the extra crunch!

Marinated Tofu Recipe
Ingredients
- 5- spiced marinated tofu (can always get this at any asian grocery store. They are already pre-marinated), at least 5-6 pieces, sliced
-1 TBS Sesame Oil
-"Oyster" sauce, (I always use the vegetarian version, but use whatever oyster sauce you have)
-Sugar
-Salt (if still needed)
-Sesame Seeds, toasted

Method
-Rinsed the tofu pieces and dry before slicing it thin.
-Heat oil at low heat and add the tofu into in and give it a stir.
-Add oyster sauce, sugar and salt to give it taste.
-Plate and add the seeds for garnish.

Note: They are as "vegetarian" as I can get them, not true vegetarian I supposed but they are quick to make, tasty and most of all, delude me into thinking that somehow I can skip a few taebo episodes!! :) Enjoy!

Lasagna

Years back during a Christmas party I had the best Lasagna I ever tasted, better than some of these so-called "authentic" italian restaurant. Nope, not kidding. It was so good that I went back for thirds and so did EVERYONE! So it was gone within minutes! However the taste of that wonderful pasta casserole lingered in my mind AND tongue for years to come. Since then I'd tried to search high and low for a lasagna recipe that remotely fit in that delicious wonder that I had at that party. The stupid thing of all was that I didn't even ask for the recipe from the host, who incidentally make one of the best lasagna around. Now what was I thinking! I think it was all that alcohol that I had that night that made me all tongue tied!!! Till this every day I am STILL kicking myself.

Although I've yet find that mysterious lasagna recipe, I had tried out many others and had fine-tuned my lasagna. Of course, throughout my experimentation I'd made (unfortunately) many a disasterous lasagna but on the bright side, I discovered a good many keepers.

Not so very long ago, I found a new passion to make my own pasta/noodles and I frequently used my pasta maker (so often that it's now squeaking....probably from fatique). However the thought of making my own lasagna sheets never ever occurred to me?? How odd. I had always used the store bought dried sheets and somehow never found them to be very appetizing. These sheets were always thick (too thick in my opinion) and tend to be soggy after all the cooking (probably overcooking?). Well, in any case, when I read THIS recipe I decided that I would make my own pasta sheets since it did call for FRESH lasagna sheets! I didn't want to buy them coz it can get real costly and really, I'm already making my own pasta....(no brainer!)



I used the recipe from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners. It takes a fresh look in making simple lasagna and I'm really curious how the creme fraiche white sauce would taste in this recipe! Not only that but it also uses roasted squash in one of the layers, now, tell me that doesn't sound fascinating enough.

So I went about making lasagna sheets but thing is, I didn't know how thick the fresh lasagna sheets are supposed to be... I decided to just follow my instincts instead. The pasta recipe I had barely yielded enough sheets for one lasagna recipe so I added a little more flour and egg to make a little extra (hey, you can always freeze the unused portion for something else!). The fresh lasagna sheets (they were made solely with flour and eggs)were a delight and I loved the texture of it. It was so smooth and the smell....YUMMY! I already had some homemade ragu sauce and used that for the "red" sauce in the lasagna. Of course, I had to make do with some other substitute ingredients coz I didn't have everything needed for that particular recipe. But it was all good! The final result was a beatiful tasting and textured lasagna. Everything came together wonderfully and even though it was a little more work in making this lasagna, this is definitely a keeper for me in my journey for the one and only lasagna! :)

Weekend Bounty

Ethan and I love the local Farmer's Market; espeically during the weekends when there're more produce out there! It's an open air market and they have tons of fresh vegetables and fruits that even non vege lovers, like my husband, can't resist the temptation of getting something....just because...:)On top of that, each vendor distributes slices of their fruits in order to lure innocent grazers like my husband and Ethan. Oh yah...they inhale EVERYTHING, did they INHALE!! My little boy was on a sensory overload with all those wonderful luscious fruits baiting at him. He just couldn't resist in grabbing every little morsels given by every vendor. Most of the time I try to be cautious with food given in this manner but I figured that it was pretty much "clean" since it's cut directly from the fruit and not place on anything. Besides, I really can't bear to stop Ethan from all his unadulterated innocent greediness!!!

As you can clearly guess what happened during one of our hunts, we came back with our loot - a whole crate filled with fresh lovely summer strawberries on top with many other things. I wasn't planning on strawberries but really, can you resist such beauty glaring at you..:) Well, I bought my crate, there's only two adults and 1 child, of course, Ethan wouldn't have any problems stuffing his face with just strawberries at every meal but somehow I don't think that would speak much for my husband and I as "good" parents. Besides eating all those strawberries as it would just be too boring....:)



Soooo...I made strawberry jam with half of strawberry loot! And yah...I made it with a little less sugar and substitute that with Splenda to cut the sugar content down a little (Advice: it does give an aftertaste like that of aspartame). Nevertheless I did that to cut all that sugar from jam making and yes I also use pectin which in hindsight, I shouldn't have but I did, regretably. In any case, my pectin didn't exactly jell my jam well and made it more like a compote instead. Nevertheless I thought it tasted very strawberry jam like and kept it as such. I also tried to make a jelly roll out of the homemade jam but it was just too runny and ruined my roll! Since then, I'd looked into other options other than using pectin! Probably will try it again some other time. It was just a little more time consuming that I had initially thought. A little too fussy as well considering that it only has two main ingredients; strawberries and sugar and oh yah, pectin! And all that cleanup?!?!? I don't think my kitchen recovered from my weekend strawberry explosion!

As for the jam recipe using pectin. Do some research on the net, buy the pectin and it usually comes with the instructions right there. You pretty much only need 2 ingredients, like I said, strawberries (if it's gonna be strawberry jam) and sugar. And pectin is a real sensitive ingredient so I guess another "ingredient" would be PRAYERS! :D