Tom Yam Braised Chicken

Before we had our Korean craze, we were so in love with Tom Yum. Tom Yum soup, Tom Yum steamboat, Tom Yum fried rice, etc. I looove Tom Yum! So instead of the usual Tom Yum Soup, I'm going to cook something a little different. Tom Yum braised Chicken!

Head to any major supermarket and you should be able to find a jar of Tom Yum paste. It consist of all the spices you need to make the soup. 

Yes, I guess you can call this a cheat dish. But in order to keep it wholesome, you can start reading the ingredients list on the food packaging. Choose the one that has the least amount of ingredients that you don't recognise. XD

Point to take note will be, the paste is usually very concentrated. I only needed 1 teaspoon to make 1 dish. But different brands have different flavours and seasoning. So always taste your food and adjust the according to your taste.

My original recipe is much more simpler, which consist of only the chicken and the sauce. But I realised that if you add in a few selected vegetables, it makes a whole lot of difference! Best thing is that it is so quick and easy to make. The spicy and sour flavours will make you salivate! Another bowl of rice for me please!

6 pieces of chicken wings with drumlets

1 onion

1 tablespoon light soya sauce

1 teaspoon instant tom yum paste

1 teaspoon instant tom yum paste oil

1 stalk lemongrass (smacked and cut into sections)

1 teaspoon sugar

200g abalone mushrooms (can use straw mushrooms)

1 tomato

1. Separate the chicken wings with the drumlets and blanch them in boiling water for a few seconds. Drain and set aside. 
2. With a little oil, stir fry the chicken parts with soya sauce until the skin is a little brown. 
3. Add tom yum paste and the oil inside the paste, if available. Add in sugar and the lemongrass and stir fry until everything is mixed well. 
4. Add in the mushrooms and give it a good toss. 
5. Add just enough water to reach halfway of the food in the frying pan. Cover up and let it cook in high heat for about 10minutes, or until the liquid has been reduced by half. Cooking in high heat releases the gelatin in the chickenskin, making the sauce thick and sticky. 
6. Check seasoning. 
7. Add in a sliced and de-seeded tomato. Give it a few toss only before serving.

Pressure Cooker Red Bean Soup

Red Bean Soup!

If you are not Asian you probably think this dish sounds kindda gross. But this is actually a dessert. A sweet porridge-like dessert made from red beans. They do sell this at food courts, but they are usually very stingy with the beans, so with every scoop, there's only a few beans floating around in the sweet soup. So sad.. When you make this at home, you can have a whole spoon of beans with every bite!

Shiok!!

Plus, do you know they are super good for you? Red beans are packed with protein, vitamins and minerals. Dessert that is actaully good for you!

The traditional way of cooking it is quite straight forward. Just put the beans in water and boil. But like all dried beans, it takes FOREVER to cook, and boiling over is unavoidable and messy. Not forgetting constantly checking it to make sure the water didn't dry up or burnt at the bottom of the pot! With the pressure cooker, all I had to do was to put everything into the pot, press 2 buttons and wait. Clean and simple!

In fact, this dish is so easy to make, I decided to just let the 2 babies do it for me. All they have to do is to follow the recipe I wrote down. Turned out that making the dish wasn't the difficult part. I forgot that my 2 babies HAD to fight about EVERYTHING. There was so much shouting, including myself, that I had to edit out the noise.. 😅

Sibling rivalry aside, the red bean soup was delicious. But when I gave it to Hubby, he ate it quietly and said, "I prefer green bean soup.."

😑

So I made green bean soup by myself the next day, and I literally only took less than 5 minutes before pressing the START button. Haha... everything really IS more difficult when the kids are around!

The green bean soup was also just as good. The beans were intact but soft and cooked. The dish was sweet and satisfying~!

You can enjoy the dessert :

• Warm
• Chilled
• Blended
• even as a side with ice cream!

OK, will stop talking now and give you the recipe.

RED / GREEN BEAN SOUP
makes 3 generous bowls

1/2 cup dried red/green beans
2 tablespoons glutinous rice **
1 stick of 片糖 (70g Chinese brown sugar)
2 pcs of Pandan leaves (tied into a knot)
2.5 cups of water

** Optional: Adding glutinous rice makes the dessert more sticky and thick.

1. Wash the beans and rice with water and drain well. 
2. Add all ingredients into the pressure cooker pot. Close the cover, make sure the pressure seal is closed. 
3. Choose 'BEAN' mode and press 'START'. Let the pressure cooker cook (30 minutes) and allow it to naturally release it's pressure by itself. (about 20-30mins) 
4. Adjust the thickness of the soup and sweetness according to your own preference. E.g. If you want it thinner, add water and bring it to a boil before serving.
5. Serve as is or with a drizzle of coconut cream.

Simplified Chicken Curry With Potatoes

When it comes to making chicken curry, my hubby and I would always go for the instant curry paste. (video here) But my brother asked if I could make chicken curry like how Mom makes them. So I guess I go check it out anyway. So it turns out to be quite a time consuming "project".

After getting the recipe from my Mother, which was strangely simple, she insisted that we NEED to get the right curry powder, which HAS to be from the spice seller at Tekka Market. Tekka Market literally on the other side of the island! So we had to wait for a few days before she is free to go buy the curry powder.

photo source: CNN.com

If you are not familiar with the spice sellers at wet markets, they are like spice gurus. You just to tell them what you want to cook, your preferences, (how spicy you want it) and they will blend different spices for you. Anyway, we got the curry powder and I tried out Mom's recipe.

Strangely, it does not taste satisfying. Like... there's not enough depth in flavour.

So I did some research and tried focusing on the process rather than the ingredients.

1. STEP BY STEP

Instead of just throwing everything into the pot, I did it step by step. Slowly and steadily, I fry up the ingredients one at a time. And the results was amazingly different. Even though I did not use as many ingredients as a traditional Malaysian Curry, I compensate with my special custom mixed curry powder, which includes a wide variety of dried and grounded spices like tumeric, corriander, cumin, dried chilli, etc. So for my simplified curry, most of the ingredients are commonly used in my kitchen. Only need to buy 1 or 2 extra ingredients. Good.

2. LOW AND SLOW

Another hurdle was frying the spices. After making the 1st successful batch, I got cocky. So the 2nd time I cooked it, I up the fire when I was frying the spices, hoping to speed up the process. Unfortunately I got distracted and the spices got slightly burnt. It was just a little brown, so I continued cooking anyway. But the final curry looked strangely brown instead of the gorgeous red yellow. When I tasted it, there was a slight bitter taste to it. It was a definite fail. :( So please take your time when frying the spices. Don't be impatient like me!

Now let's look at the recipe.

Serves 2-3 persons

500g Chicken (I use thigh and wings)

3-4 waxy potatoes

1 large onion, diced (130g)

3 garlic cloves, diced

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1 birdseye chilli/chilli padi (optional)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 stalk lemongrass (bruised)

1 stalk curry leaves

100ml coconut cream

2 tablespoon curry powder

cooking oil

1. Par-boil your potatoes in salted water for about 5 minutes. I'm using waxy potatoes because they hold their shape better.
2. Mix enough oil to the curry powder to make a thick paste. 
3. In low heat with a little oil, stir fry the onion, garlic, chilli and ginger until SLIGHTLY browned. Some may say that is not browned enough. That's because we are not done frying! If we continue to fry them after they have been browned, they will burn and turn bitter. So just ever so slightly browned will do. 
4. Add the curry leaves and curry paste in and continue to stir fry in low heat for another 2-3 minutes. Same thing, the spices in the curry powder needs heat in order for the fragrances to be released. But they also burn very easily. So LOW and SLOW please. 
5. When you start to smell the fragrance and see tiny bubbles sizzling on the curry paste, add in your chicken and boiled potatoes. Increase the heat and stir fry until all the chicken and potatoes are coated with the paste. 
6. Add enough water to cover about 3/4 of all the items in the frying pan. The thickness of the curry is subjective to personal preference. I like my curry thick, like a stew. Some like it more watery like soup. So add more water if you want.
7. Add salt and sugar. 
8. Bring to boil in high heat. When the curry is bubbling, lower the heat and simmer in medium heat for 15-20minutes.  
9. Check your seasoning and adjust accordingly. If too salty, add water or sugar. 
10. Add coconut cream. Mix well and simmer for another 5-10minutes. 
11. Serve with rice, noodles or bread.

You can see my video for a clearer picture

Steamed Pork Patty With Dried Squid - 鱿鱼蒸肉饼

Growing up, my Mother was a stay-at-home Mom. So almost everyday, we enjoyed delicious home cooked meals. When I grew up, I noticed many people mentioning things like, "my Grandmother makes the best dumplings..", "my Mother makes the best chicken curry.." etc. But many wonderful homecooked recipes were lost because somewhere down the line, the recipe was not learnt, and thus lost forever. Such a waste!

I created a YouTube channel, CoKohKitchen comprising of me recreating my Mother's recipes and also some of my own recipes. Hoping that the trial and errors that we went through would not be lost. Hoping that someone, anyone, would be able to benefit from watching the videos. Maybe, one day, my own children would be able to learn a thing or two from there even if I'm not around.

My brother surprised me by asking me to make this dish for my YouTube channel. I didn't even know that he was subscribed to it. This is such a simple and humble dish that even I had forgotten all about it. But I did remember that it was one of his favourite dish growing up.

So I had to go ask the guru (a.k.a. Mommy) how to cook it. The problem with "Mom's recipes" is that it's always very vague. She can tell you the recipe, but because everything is agar-agar (estimated), it just doesn't turn out the way you want it to be. So a seemingly simple dish took me a few tries to master it, and to finally write it down.

Here are some things to take note for this recipe.

1. Buy big pieces of dried squids.

You can smell them. They should have a strong aroma. Smaller ones doesn't have any flavour. After soaking them, peel off the cuttlebone. This is a bone of the squid. It looks like a long piece of plastic. Use your fingers to feel the squid. If there's a lump in the middle, remove it. It's the eye or beak. Honestly I can't tell. It's tough and not for eating. Gross, I know. Sorry.

2. Pork
For best results, go to a butcher, choose a nice piece of pork belly. I find that meat that is darker pink have better flavour and more tender than the light pink ones. You can decide how fatty or lean you want it to be. At least 40% fats please. Ask your butcher to mince the meat to save you the effort. My Mother would go home and chop up the meat herself. You can do that too. DO NOT buy pre-minced meat. Yup, those packets of minced pork have no flavour and way too lean. The meat patty would turn up super dry and tough. Don't.

3. Always check seasoning
Don't blindly trust how other people season their food. When you are cooking for yourself, always, always check the seasoning. Everybody have different taste, so always under-season, taste it, and then gradually adjust according to your liking.

That said, here is the recipe.

half a piece of dried squid
2 pieces of dried scallop (conpoy)
280g Minced fatty pork
1/4 tsp salt
a dash of pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine
a pinch of Chicken powder (optional)
5 tbsp water

1. Rinse the dried squid and dried conpoy and soak it in cool water until it's soft. About 30-40 minutes.
2. Remove the squid bone and eye. Chop the squid and scallop finely.
3. Add chopped seafood into the pork and mix in all the seasoning.
4. Check seasoning by cooking a little of the meat and tasting it.
5. When you are happy with the seasoning, spread out the meat onto a plate and add in the water. (use the water from soaking the squid and scallop)
6. Steam for about 5 minutes.
7. Serve!

For a better understanding, check out the video for this recipe.

Crispy Cheese and Spinach Wontons

Hubby and I decided to restart Meatless Monday. Where we would not eat any meat once a week. Times like these I really take my hat off for those vegetarians. It's so hard to make a filling dinner without any meat! How do they do this everyday!?!?

My initial idea for a spinach wonton came from Ding Tai Fung's fried spinach wonton. We love it, but I think there's some pork in it. So I was surfing YouTube for fried spinach wonton recipe when one suggested video showed Cheese and Spinach Wontons. I was intrigued. My kids love cheese and anything crispy. Spinach and Cheese? Sounds like a good idea! I don't know who's recipe this belongs too, but it seems like many people are making them and loving it. So I gave it a try.

The result was... Delicious!

Packed with nutritious spinach and cheese for strong bones, sinfully crispy, and best of all, it's so easy to make! Wah.. No wonder it's so popular.. Don't take my word for it, my 2 kids were fighting each other for the last piece while the 2 adults barely have enough to eat. T_T So I would say this is a successful recipe. One for the books!

Cheese and Spinach Wontons
Makes about 25 wontons

250g Chinese spinach
2 cloves garlic 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon sugar
160g cream cheese
1 packet wonton skin
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon water

1. Wash and cut the spinach. Cut and discard the roots, cut into smaller sections and wash thoroughly. 
2. Heat up a deep frying pan with some oil and add in crushed garlic. If you don’t have a garlic crusher, mince it as fine as you can. 
3. Add in the Spinach before the garlic turns brown, (which only takes less than a minute) salt and sugar, and stir fry vegetables until it is tender. 
4. Put cooked spinach in a strainer and strain out as much liquid as you can.
5. Chop up the spinach finely. Set aside in a big bowl. 
6. Add room temperature cream cheese into the bowl with the spinach and mix well. 
7. Mix flour with water to make the “glue”. 
8. Place spinach and cheese fillings in the wonton skin and seal up the wonton with the “glue” mixture. See video on different ways to wrap a wonton. 
9. Fry in medium-high heat oil until the wonton is light golden brown.
10. Serve.

Note: 
You can freeze the raw wontons. Place them in a ziplock bag but make sure they don’t stick onto each other. Carefully place them into the freezer. When it’s frozen, you can bunch them up together. When you want to serve them, directly deep fry them as per normal until light golden brown.

GYUU+ Yakiniku Grill @ Emporium Shokuhin

We had a choice. Father's Day was on our date day. Should we spend the day with our babies? Or should we enjoy some peace and quiet time by ourselves? After some deliberations, we decided that we shouldn't give up our precious bi-weekly half day off. Hee.. So we dropped off the kids and head off to a sumptuous meal of BBQ meat!

The restaurant was inside the new Emporium Shokuhin at Marina Square. The restaurant, like everything else there, was a little pricey but looks really quality and delicious. Typical to most quality Japanese restaurants. But it was a special occasion. Besides, there was an ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET. Enough said!

The price was $70.50 per adult (weekend price) And you can eat as much want! Honestly we are not very good at buffets. We only managed to eat one plate of each type of meat and already we were so stuffed I couldn't even finish my beer! Sigh.. But the meat was awesome. Moist, tender, with perfect marbling. You know it's good meat when all the seasoning you need was a little lemon juice, salt and pepper. My mouth is currently watering from the memory of the grilled meat!

Definitely a value for money for all you carnivores out there!



Loooove the sizzling sound of grilling meat!

GYUU+ Yakiniku Grill
Emporium Shokuhin
6 Raffles Boulevard
#01-18 Marina Square
Singapore 039594

Jang Won Korean Restaurant

Somehow when you Google "Korean Food", it shows you a gazillion pages and restaurants serving Korean BBQ. Korean food is not just BBQ meat! I love the home style dishes of Korean food like soups and stews with rice and noodles. It's so comforting and hearty! SO one weekend I was craving some good Kimchi Jjigae for lunch, so I managed to find one at Chinatown and gave it a try.

The store was very unassuming, very quiet, simple and low key, which is perfect. Family restaurants are supposed to look like that right?

The staff was Korean too, and they quickly seated us down. The menu looked great with loads of stews and soup. I already know what I wanted, which was their famous Kimchi Jjigae. But when faced with the menu, I can't help but order some Mandu (korean pork dumplings) too. Hubby ordered their Beef bone soup.

Like any Korean restaurants, they serve the banchan first. Which is a variety of side dishes. I love family restaurants banchan better because they seem to have more heart and effort in making the banchan. Many big BBQ restaurants usually just give you some kimchi and anchovies. Look at this!

I'm not an expert on korean banchan, but these little dishes are delicious! I could just eat this with a pint of beer and I'm a happy gal. My expectations for the main meal has gone up from just tasting the side dishes!

Finally our soup came! Doesn't look very fancy, but the taste was amazing!

The soup was very rich and flavourful. Perfect with some chewy korean rice. The kimchi was plentiful and the soup was warm and comforting. I'm salivating from just thinking about it now. :P Usually people would add some pork in the soup, unfortunately I could only find ONE piece. The one piece of pork was really tender and delicious, wish there was more... :(

Hubby's Beef Bone soup was out of the world. The soup was very rich and the beef was very tender. The pieces of meat was huge! So it was a pretty hearty meal.

The mandu was okay, the skin was a little too thick and chewy to our liking.

The menu had a wide variety of dishes that I wish we could try, but there were only 2 of us. By the time I finished the soup and rice, I was quite full. But it was such a satisfying meal. Maybe next time we'll try different dishes. :)

44 Mosque Street
#01-01
Singapore 059522
6532 6949

M-F: 11.30am-2.30pm; 5.30-10pm
Weekend & PH: 5-10pm

Brinjal with Minced Pork - Oh So Purple

Growing up I never liked vegetables, and brinjals would be pretty high in the ranks of vegetables I detest. But when I grew up I learnt to like many vegetables. My Mum's spicy yong tau foo with dark soya sauce made me fall in love with brinjals again. But like it's name suggest, the whole dish, along with all it's ingredients is dark brown.

Experts say you should eat your colours, like red, orange, blue, green and purple. But it seems inevitable when cooking brinjal right? Whenever you cook it, it turns into a sad, greyish brown shade. Recently I stumbled upon a few videos on YouTube that showed how to keep the brinjal purple even after cooking. One suggest you coat it with vinegar first, but it would also require you to fry the brinjal first. I hate frying. All the oil needed is so troublesome and messy! The other method is this, super high heat with a minimum amount of time. The only way to achieve that is to use the microwave.

I've had my microwave for such a long time that I actually don't know what model it is or it's maximum voltage. I do know how to cook under maximum power though, and it really works! The brinjal is actually cooked, but the colour remains a pretty purple! Amazing!

Minced Pork gravy
75g Minced pork
1 onion (diced)
1 garlic (minced)
Seasoning:
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1/2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp fermented soya bean paste
water

1. Brown the minced pork (you can use any type of meat) with a little oil. 
2. Add onion, garlic with a small pinch of salt and pepper. The salt will make the onion sweat, so it will soften rather than brown. Stir fry until onions turn slightly translucent. 
3. Add enough water to cover all the meat. Add in the seasoning, mix well and cover up to let the meat braise for a few minutes. 
4. After 5mins, check the flavour before thickening gravy with a little cornstarch slurry. Set aside. 
5. Cut brinjal into bite size pieces and place on a microwave safe plate skin side up. 
6. Coat the skin in oil. 
7. Cover with a microwave safe cover and cook in the microwave at the highest heat setting for 3 minutes. 
8. Take out the brinjal, pour the meat gravy on top. Cover and microwave under full power for 1 minute. 
9. Serve!

Looking at those shades of purple reminds me of the recently departed singer, Prince. Rest in peace!

Salmon and Cheese Quesadilla

On some days I just get so sick of thinking what to cook for lunch/dinner. Rice, porridge or noodles? Ugh.. So once in awhile I would make this, Salmon and Cheese Quesadillas. Not only are they simple to make, they are super delicious!

Ooh... check out the stretched cheese....

Salmon is so nutritious, but my babies would only eat a few mouthfuls and they had enough of it. Maybe it's due to the strong flavor? But when I make these Quesadillas, the two kids could devour the whole salmon fillet by themselves. And that makes me a happy Mum!

Makes 2 whole Quesadillas

1 salmon fillet (or canned salmon)
a pinch of salt
a dash of pepper
1 heapful tsp mayonnaise
1 pc Laughing Cow cream cheese (about 16g)
1 tsp lemon juice

Shredded cheese
Whole wheat Tortilla wraps

1. Steam Salmon fillet with a pinch of salt. 
2. When cooled, flake it with your fingers to check for bones. 
3. Add mayonnaise, cheese, pepper and lemon juice. Mix well. 
4. Spread a thin layer on tortilla wrap. Sprinkle cheese on top of salmon mix. Leave a space around the edge. Top with another piece of tortilla wrap. 
5. In a slightly oiled frying pan, pan-fry the tortilla on both sides using low-medium heat until it is golden brown. 
6. Cut and serve!

Tangzhong Sweet Potato Bread - Breadmaker

I've always been fascinated by purple sweet potatoes. How it makes your food all pretty and pink and purple. So girly and pretty! The last time I baked with it was 5 years ago! How time flies! The purple sweet potato bread then turned out so wonderful, I had to do it again. But this time round I wanted to try a different method, so this is my tangzhong method sweet potato bread loaf!

I'm using the bread maker machine to do the 1st stage of kneading and proofing for me. But because my little boy likes cheese sticks bread from Bread Talk, I'm taking some dough out to make some cheese sticks.

The result was good, the bread was moist, fluffy and tasty. There wasn't any distinctive sweet potato flavour, but the bread does have this slight alcohol smell. Was it the sweet potato or was there too much yeast? I'm not sure. But more importantly, the kids loved it. :)

120 gm tangzhong
100 gm cooked sweet potato
50 gm whisked egg
150 ml milk (lukewarm)
40 gm honey
½ tsp salt
300 gm bread flour
50g wholewheat flour
2 tsp instant dried yeast
25 gm butter, melted

1. Make the Tangzhong with 120ml water and 24g flour (click here for how to make tangzhong) 
2. Using a fork, stab the sweet potato all over and microwave it for about 4 minutes. Scrape out the flesh. You need about 100g. 
3. Add all ingredients (except butter) into the breadmaker, the wet ingredients first, then followed by the dry ingredients. Select the “dough” mode, which should knead the dough and go through 1st round of proofing. When the machine kneads the ingredients into a dough, add the butter and let the machine do the rest of the work. 
4. When done, transfer the dough onto a clean floured surface. I needed to make some cheese sticks so I will divide into 4 portions. If you are only doing the loaf, deflate and divide into 3 equal portions will do. 
5. Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Roll flat and stretch, then roll into a cylinder. With seal facing down, place in a greased sandwich loaf tin. Cover up and complete the 2nd round of proofing, (about 1hr+) until it’s doubled in size.  (the dough broke when I forced open the cover! Maybe should oil the cover?)
   
6. Bake in a pre-heated 180C (356F) oven for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer onto a wire rack. Let cool completely before slicing or storing in an airtight container.

For the Bread Talk Bakery style of cheese sticks, so I took out a 1/4 of the dough to make some.

1. After STEP 4, roll the dough into small log shapes and let it proof until it is double in size. (about 1hr+)
   
2. Brush whisked egg on surface gently, sprinkle with cheese and drizzle with mayonnaise. For cheese I used the leftover pizza mix cheese, consisting of cheddar, Parmesan and mozzarella.
3. Bake in a pre-heated 180C (356F) oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.

Dancing Crab

Wanted to eat something different for a change! Cobby once had a cohesion session with his colleagues at this restaurant, so he brought me here on our date day for lunch. I let him do the ordering and this is our lunch!

Combo Bag #02 - SGD$40.00
300g Prawns, 250g Mussels, 250g Clams,
Potatoes, Corn, Sausages with Dancing Crab Signature Sauce (Mild)

After a short wait, the waitress came with a plastic bag and unceremoniously dumped the contents onto the table!

I've never experience dining like this before. So fun! Disposable aprons and gloves were the only thing else on the table. So it's quite obvious how they want us to eat. All HANDS on deck! Hehehe..

First of all, the seafood was VERY fresh, very sweet and succulent. The crab meat was very meaty and the prawns were so delicious! The sausages in the mix was also surprisingly yummy. The sauce was not like our Singapore style chilli crab. It's more tomato base, herby and spicy! Surprisingly spicy really, and our order wasn't the most spicy choice! Respect! But I'm glad we didn't order one that was too spicy. I don't want the spice to overpower the sweetness of the seafood!

As much as I enjoyed the meal, it feels a little lacking in terms of substance. There were potatoes in the mix but I still don't feel very full after eating. In the end we ordered a serving of truffle fries, which was quite generous in proportion, so I felt better after having some carbs in me.

Overall an enjoyable meal. The combo was delicious but I suggest ordering it with something else to make it a more filling meal.
http://www.dancingcrab.com.sg/

No skills required - Braised Peanuts 焖花生

There's this Chinese restaurant that we love to go to and the moment we settled down they would serve these delicious little plates of braised peanuts as appetiser. My son would demand, "peanuts!" and us the servants would pour a few at a time into his kiddy bowl. Before the food arrived he would have polished off at least a third of the plate. Back before we had kids, the both of us can leisurely enjoy the delicious plate of peanuts while we chat. Now it's like a competition. If you eat any slower the kid would finish all the food! -_-"

But as a parent I'm always on a lookout for food inspirations. Especially food that the kids like to eat! I did a little research on the internet and I was a little surprised that this dish is really a no-brainer. But to be honest, the 1st time I did struggle to catch the perfect cooking time. Those peanuts sure take a long time to cook! Once I got the timing right, it's really a too easy recipe. To me, the peanuts have to be soft and NOT crunchy. BUT, it should still hold it's shape. That would be perfect. No wonder the kids love it!

1 cup of raw peanuts
3 cups water (double the height of the peanuts in the pot)
2 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/4 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice powder
a few dash of pepper

Put everything into a pressure cooker and stir well.

• Pressure Cookers:
1. Bring to pressure using high heat.
2. Bring to low heat and cook for 1 hour and 50 minutes.

• Regular Pots:
1. Bring to boil using high heat.
2. Bring to low heat and cook for 2-3 hours.
3. Check every 30-45 minutes to make sure it doesn't dry out. Add water if necessary.

And that's it! Sorry but it really is that simple. Haha, but it's so good, you cannot stop at just one. Yummy! Here's a video tutorial.

Danish Butter Cookies (Vaniljekranse)

Recently the famous Jenny Bakery from Hong Kong came to Singapore and suddenly everybody started going butter cookies crazy. I tried one of the "copycat" recipe online and found out that the famous butter cookies were actually the melt-in-your-mouth type. I don't like them. -_-

My ideal butter cookies comes in a famous blue tin. I don't even know how to pronouce the word! I only know it as Danish Butter Cookies. Choose from a few different designs in a little white cupcake case and pair it with a hot cup of coffee.. Ah.. the perfect tea time!

So I went online to search for a good recipe and settled on the one by Nordicfoodliving.com. Afterall, who better than the Danish to learn Danish Butter Cookies from right? But I did tweak it abit. (see below recipe) Furthermore it's a Christmas dish, how appropriate, given that it's almost Christmas now.

One bite and I know that this is the one! Nice crunchy texture, sweet with a wonderful rich aroma of butter. And the recipe is so simple! Great for gifts on Chinese New Year!

I made a few designs with my piping gun. After they come out of the oven, I noticed that they do spread out a little bit. So I spread a little batter onto a bear cake mould (see my carrot cake bears) and popped it into the oven to see if it works. It works and I got bear shaped cookies! So cute! Just remember to keep it a thin layer for a crispy texture.

Ingredients
175g sugar
200g unsalted butter (softened)
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract

250g plain flour
75g almond meal

Demerara sugar (optional - for sprinkling)

1. Preheat oven at 200°C. 
2. Using a paddle attachment, mix butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. 
3. Add flour and almond meal and mix until just incorporated.
4. Pipe into desired shapes. If you want to use a piping bag, make sure you have strong hands and even stronger piping bags. Sprinkle Demerara sugar on top. (optional) 
5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes or until edges are golden brown. (turn tray halfway through to have an even baking)
6. Cool on wire rack before storing in air tight containers.

Stir Fry Long Beans with Pork - 乱棍打死猪八戒

乱棍打死猪八戒 This was the name my Mum used for this dish and it stuck in my head for years! It's a clever name as the string beans were the poles while the pork was Zhu Bajie, one of the characters in the story Journey to the West.

Names aside, this is a simple home-style dish that is easy to whip up and it goes nicely with a bowl of rice. I cooked the long beans a little more softer because of the kids, but you can cut the cooking time if you prefer it more crunchy.

Long beans
Pork shoulder
Seasoning:
1 tsp Bean paste with garlic
1 tsp Sugar
a dash of pepper

1. Slice pork shoulder into thin slices. Marinate with seasoning for 15 to 20 minutes. 
2. Wash the long beans, cut into segments. 
3. Add a teaspoon of salt and oil in boiling water and cook long beans until desired texture. Drain and set aside. 
4. Stir fry marinated pork slices. 
5. Add a little water until just half of meat level. Bring to boil, cover up and simmer in lowest heat for 10 minutes. 
6. After 10 minutes, stir in cooked long beans and thicken sauce with corn starch and water slurry. 
7. Serve.

See video here.

Fruit and Nuts Bread Loaf - Tangzhong Method

Many friends, family and acquaintances always commented that my husband must be a very lucky person, to be able to enjoy all the bakes I make regularly. But the truth is, my husband doesn't have a sweet tooth like me and would only try my bakes when I ask him to. So when he requests for something, I know I need to go all out to make it happen.

One day he causally asked if I could make a fruit and nut loaf. He's like a mouse and loves to nibble on dried fruits and nuts! I on the other hand, have the impression that fruit and nut bread loaf are dry and boring. But since he requested it, I will make it happen!

Since it's home-made, I decided that those crappy dried fruit at the baking aisle will not do. Instead, I hunted down those good quality trail mix with huge raisins, great variety of nuts and even dried figs in it! On top of that, we recently bought a huge packet of dried blueberries, so that will be in the loaf too. So luxurious!

Next I looked for a good bread dough recipe. I'm thinking of a fluffy and moist bread dough to go with the fruit and nuts, so it's Tangzhong again for me. Hey, if it's not broken, why fix it?

So let's put two and two together!

Bread dough
210 gm bread flour
40 gm wholemeal flour
3 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Instant Yeast
1 Egg (lightly beaten)
100 ml Milk
20 gm Butter (softened)
1 batch of Tangzhong

Filling
Good quality trail mix with nuts and dried fruits
enough juice to soak the dried fruits

1. Pick out the dried fruits and soak in juice for at least an hour. You can use it as it is or chop into smaller pieces. 
2. Prepare the bread dough with the bread maker using the "DOUGH" mode. The recipe for the dough is here . 
3. Dust the kitchen counter, take out dough and roll out the trapped air. Divide the dough into 3 portions and roll into a long rectangle. Sprinkle the nuts and fruits onto the dough and roll it up tightly from the long end up. 
4. Butter your loaf tin and place the rolls in. Cover loosely with a clingwrap and let it proof until it doubles in size. Gently brush some egg wash on top of the loaf (careful not to brush onto the pan. Makes it hard to unmould later) 
5. Bake it in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. When it's done remove loaf from pan to cool off in a wire rack.

I didn't grease the pan and the loaves stuck. They fell apart when I try to shake it out! (T-T)

Didn't roll tight enough, causing a huge air pocket.

Flaws aside, it was a very good bread. Bread was soft yet chewy, the fruits and nuts added so much flavour and texture to it. Even a person who don't like fruits and nut loaf (I meant me) will love it!

This recipe is definitely a keeper!
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Sugary Yeasted Donuts

I love donuts, but not the type you see at the fancy American donuts shops. I always find those donuts too dense and WAAAY too sweet. My favourite type of donut is commonly found at a humble neighbourhood bread shop, a simple donut with sugar dusting. To me, a good donut have to be big, soft and fluffy. A good and even coat of caster sugar would be all that's enough to pair with it's light fluffy goodness.

In order to get that kind of fluffiness, you either cheat with baking powder or use yeast. Baking powder usually have this after taste that I really don't like. So if I'm going to make my own donuts, it has to be done using the slow proofing method with the good-ol-fashioned yeast.

Also, don't get me started on baking the donut. I always roll my eyes when I read about baked donuts. Come on lah, if you are really health conscious, don't eat donuts in the first place. Baked donuts are sad, dry and tough pieces of dough that cannot be compared with the crispy, fluffy heaven of fried donuts.

OK, enough said. I had always like to make some donuts for tea break but it is a little time consuming. One weekend I decide to plan ahead and made some in time for tea. I used Byron Talbott's recipe and it was perfect. It's everything I expected. Sugary and crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Great recipe!

So here I am, sharing it with you.

1/2 cup milk
1 tsp dry active yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
4 tbsp melted butter
1 whole egg
Caster sugar for coating
TIME

1. Warm up the milk in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Stir in the sugar and yeast and let it sit for 15-20 minutes until it is frothy. 
2. Add the yeast mixture, butter and egg in the mixer and mix well. With a hook attachment, gradually add in the flour and let the mixer knead it for about 5 minutes until it is well incorporated. 
3. Put the dough in a floured surface and roll out into about 1 inch thickness. Cut it into desired shapes, I used the classic donut ring. 
4. The shape gets warped a little when you transfer from table to the pot of hot oil. To prevent this, place your cut doughs on individual parchment papers. After proofing, pick up the dough using the paper and flip it into the hot oil. If you don't mind the slightly warped shape, skip this step. 
5. Let your dough proof for about 1 hour. 
6. Fry the dough in oil at medium heat until light golden brown. Let it drip of some oil on a wire rack for half a minute before tossing it in caster sugar. 
7. Serve hot with coffee!

A taste of sunshine - Lemon Cornmeal Cake

I came across this recipe while watching Cupcake Jemma on YouTube and I know I have to give it a try. Gluten free!!

Besides, I do have 2 lemons sitting sadly in my fridge, waiting patiently to be transformed into something delicious. So I bought myself some polenta and almond meal and got to it.

Before I start, I need to clarify something. The orignal recipe is called Polenta Cake. But Polenta is actually a NAME of a dish. And this dish is made from cornmeal. So technically we should call it Lemon Cornmeal Cake right? So if you can't find "polenta" in your stores, try cornmeal. It's the same.

165g unsalted butter (softened)
150g caster sugar
zest of 3 lemons
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 large eggs (about 112g)
1/2 teaspoons of vanilla

175g ground almonds
70g polenta / cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt

100g icing sugar
1.5 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Grease a loaf pan and line with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 170C. 
2. Cream butter and sugar together with a paddle attachment until it is very pale and light. 
3. Using a fine grater, directly grate lemon zest into the mixing bowl. Add in lemon juice and mix well. Add in one egg at a time, mixing well before adding another. Add in vanilla and mix well. 
4. In a separate bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together, getting rid of all lumps. 
5. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 50mins, or until it is done. It is done when you poke the middle of the cake with a skewer and it comes out clean. 
6. Remove from pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack before icing. For the icing, whisk icing sugar with lemon juice. Pour onto the cooled cake.

The whole house smells amazing when the cake was baking. I really love the bright yellow colour of the cake, so cheerful!

Taste wise, the cake was DELICIOUS! It tasted better than I expected. Looks dense like a butter cake, but it was very light and airy, breaks off easily actually. It taste good just as it is, but top it up with the lemon icing REALLY made a big difference in the flavour. I love the bright taste of the lemon with the fluffy cake. It's like eating sunshine!

One of the best thing I have baked so far. Definitely will do it again!

Brown Sugar Banana Bread 黑糖香蕉面包

I seem to have a habit of buying recipe books and not "using" them. So I left clear instructions to the kids NOT to eat the last banana left. I need the last one to try out a new recipe from my newly bought bread maker book (麵包機新手的第一本書).

The original recipe was for a sandwich loaf. But I was feeling a little creative that afternoon, so I made the recipe into little individual bear buns instead. I was on the fence on whether to add fillings to the buns or not. But since there's banana and brown sugar inside, I decided to just make it plain.

The recipe is so easy to make and the bear was so cute! But I would definitely skip the egg wash the next time as it turned out too brown!

90g Milk
90g Banana Puree
20g Brown Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
230g Bread Flour
20g Wholewheat Flour
20g Unsalted Butter
3/4 tsp Instant Yeast
black food colouring

1. Put all ingredients in to the bread making machine and select "DOUGH" mode. This will mix, knead and proof the dough for you. If you don't have a bread maker: 
• Make sure all ingredients are in room temperature. 
• Mix the yeast with the milk and wait for a few minutes until the yeast blooms. 
• Put all ingredients except butter into a mixer with a paddler attachment and mix it all up. 
• Once the ingredients are well mixed, add in the butter. Switch to the hook attachment and knead the dough in medium speed for about 10-15min. 
• Remove the hook and cover up the bowl with cling flim and proof until the dough double in size.
2. When the dough is ready knock out all the air and weight it. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.
3. From each piece cut out about 5 grams and cut it into 2 pieces for the ears.
4. Roll all the dough into balls. Place them into muffin tins, add the ears. 
5. Cover the muffin tin with a clean tea towel and let it rise again for about 20 minutes.
6. Using a toothpick and black food colouring, draw eyes and nose on the bears.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degress celsius for 15 minutes.
8. Cool on a wire rack before eating!

The next morning, I toasted the bears a little and spread a little peanut butter for the kids. They loved it! For me, I'm a Nutella fan, and Nutella on banana buns was SO DIVINE! Maybe next time I'll wrap it inside the buns.

Braised Fish with Leeks

I learned this dish from my Mother-in-law, and in turn I think she learned it from her Mother too. I like recipes like these. But like most "Mama's recipe", nothing is written down. You learn by tasting the dish, asking questions and watching them cook. After that, good luck and try not to screw up.

I guess when it comes to cooking, there is no hard and fast rules. Most importantly is to:
1. BUY FRESH INGREDIENTS (especially FISH)
2. GET THE TIMING RIGHT

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the freshness of the fish. I've learnt the lesson the hard way and the dish had came out tasting fishy and horrible. If you are cooking the dish today, buy the fish this morning. The wonderful taste of the fresh fish makes up to 60% of the dish!

The timing part, I don't know how to teach you except to use your eyes and experience. The bigger the fish, the longer it takes. I have cooked so many undercooked, overcooked fishes myself! Check every so often if you are new to this and as time goes by, your experience will guide you through.

So important notes aside, let's go to the recipe

Fish (mine was about 600-700g)
2 tbsp Cornflour
1 tsp salt
a dash of pepper

3 stalks Leeks
100g pork
1 tomato
1 slice of ginger

water or soup stock
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp sugar

Preparation:

• Cut pork into thin slices and marinate in a little soya sauce. 
• Peel away the outer layer of leek. Slice leeks diagonally and only use the lighter colour part of the stalk. Wash thoroughly. 
• Slice tomatoes and remove seeds. 
• Make cuts on the fish. 

1. Mix cornflour, salt and pepper together and rub all over the fish. 
2. Heat up oil and fry the fish for only 2-3 minutes on each side. (We don't want to cook the fish, just fry the outside) Set aside. 
3. Heat up wok with a tablespoon of oil and stir fry ginger, pork and leeks for a minute. (careful they burn easily, lower heat if the edges started to char) 
4. Add water or soup stock till the ingredients are covered. Add 1 teaspoon soya sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar and bring to boil. 
5. When sauce is boiling, add fish and tomato slices. Put on the lid and cook in low heat for 4 minutes. 
6. After 4 minutes, check if the fish is cooked all the way to the bone. If cooked, dish up. If not cooked yet, gently flip the fish over and cook for another 4 minutes. Done!

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Bread With Cheese

I was recently in Hong Kong and I came across this big bookstore in Hysan Shopping Centre. As usual, I headed straight to the cookbooks section and a book caught my eye. It says 麵包機新手的第一本書 (The first book for bread making machine amateurs). Hmm sounds like me. Haha.. But I do like it that the author has alot of interesting ideas for different flavours. I also like it that it has alot of step-by-step photos.

This is the 1st recipe I'm trying from the book and so far I like it. Well, I did make slight adjustments to the original recipe, but it still works.

1. Original recipe uses 40g of cream cheese instead of butter. I don't have any, so I opt for butter. Will try cream cheese next time.
2. Original recipe is actually a sandwich loaf. I divide into 12 pieces and wrapped cheddar cheese cubes in them. YUMS.

They say sweet potatoes are super food, so I guess this must be one nutritious bun! Because it's supposed to be a sandwich loaf, it's not sweet. So if you like it sweeter, you can add some more sugar. I like it as it is. Soft, fluffy and goes well with the salty cheese in the middle. Thumbs up!

110g milk
120g sweet potato mash
15g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Whole wheat flour 30g
Bread flour 220g
Butter 40g
3/4 tsp Instant yeast

Cheddar cheese cubes (about 2cm cubes)
Extra milk for brushing

1. Cut sweet potatoes into small cubes and steam them under high heat for about 10mins, or cooked through. Mash them up and set aside 120g to cool. 
2. Place all ingredients except for the cheddar cheese cubes into the bread making machine pan and select "DOUGH" function. 
3. When the dough is ready flatten it out and roll it up again into a log. Cut out 12 equal portions. (I weighed the whole dough and divided the weight by 12. Which is about 45g each.)
4. Flatten each dough, place a piece of cheese in, pinch it together to close and gently roll the dough to smoothen it. Place it seam side down into a muffin tray. 
5. Proof for 30-45mins. 
6. Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10-15mins. 
7. Gently brush milk on top of buns before baking in a preheated oven for 20mins. 
8. Remove buns from muffin tray to cool on wire rack. Best eaten warm!