'Ngai' Leaf Egg Omelette

I was asking mom why she did not cook any vegetables for me and she said I can't take any vegetables yet until 7 days post partum. The weather was pretty unforgiving the past weeks with lots of rain which resulted in the availability and rising cost of vegetables in the market. Since mom has limited stuff to cook this time (also due to all the yadda-yadda of not to cook this ingredients or that ingredients), she has to find alternatives.

Luckily in my mom's small garden, there were some 'Ngai' plants growing (I don't have the scientific name for this plant) but the leaf's shape is like those of chrysanthemum. It was believed that these green leafy has the 'wind expelling' agent similar to Basil leaf. It tasted a little bitter but have a very fragrant aroma. To make it taste even better, my mom added them into egg omelette together with some glutinous rice wine... and it is yummy! :)

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Ingredients

• 2 Eggs


• 50g 'Ngai' leaf


• 1tsp Glutinous rice wine


• Salt for taste


• Sesame seed oil

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some sesame seed oil and stir fry the 'Ngai' leaves for about 1 minute on medium fire.


2. Beat egg, add in salt and pour onto the leaves to form omelette.


3. When omelette is turning golden, sprinkle the glutinous rice wine over and serve hot.

Chicken with Shallots and Lemongrass Soup

I think more and more people are taking soupy dishes for their confinement these days as preparing soup is more convenient compared to other stir-fried dishes. However, many of the more traditional lots still believe that soup should only be taken earliest 7 days postpartum. That also depending on the types of ingredients used in the soup.

This time round, my mom prepared this simple and easy soup using shallots and lemongrass. She told me these two ingredients has the function of expelling 'wind' from the stomach so it is extremely good for me since I have a natural birth. I was lucky that my mom managed to buy some free range chickens for preparing this particular soup.

After taking this soup I can feel my tummy starts to work... yeah.... can feel the gas escaping! :P

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Ingredients
(2 meals)

• 1 Chicken (medium sized free range chicken)


• 10-12 bulbs Shallots


• 4-5 sticks Lemongrass (use the head and slightly smashed)


• 1L Water


• Salt for taste

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Methods

1. Wash and cut chicken into  sections. Remove skin if you want a less oily soup but most free range chicken are never too fat... :)


2. Boil water and place shallots and lemongrass in and let it boil for 20 minutes before placing the chicken pieces in and let it boil for another hour. Alternatively, you can place everything into a double boil pot and double boil for about 2 hours.

Peppered Pork Slices (Confinement Dish)

Wow! It has been 2 months since I last posted anything here! My sincere apology!

Well, currently I am 2 weeks post natal and I am still on confinement. There are still a lot of adjustment needed juggling 2 kids now and in another 2 weeks, I will be on my own when I return home to Penang. I can't imagine my days ahead!

I count my blessings as my mom is helping me with my confinement now so I know I am in good hands. This time we decided to do it as simple as possible since my mom is baby sitting my nephew and also helping me to care for Darrius as I am not allowed to do heavy chores. One of the things I enjoyed during this period is of course those yummy confinement food which we can't really consume when we are not in confinement! As most of these dishes are rated as 'extremely heaty' during normal days, some of us only can take them once in a while while not in confinement.

Since I don't get to eat these special dishes all the time, I just want to share it with those of you who are looking for some simple yet delicious confinement dishes which you can incorporate into your confinement menu especially for those of you who did not engage a confinement lady to help. One of my favorite is this peppered pork dish which I have been having almost any other day!

The other reason why I prefer to have pepper over ginger is because my baby is suffering from newborn jaundice and I was 'advised' by some to limit my ginger intake for the first 10 days post natal.

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Ingredients

• 200g Pork loin (Sliced thinly and slightly knocked with the back of a cleaver)


• 10g Peppercorns (crushed)


• 3tbsp  Sesame seed oil


• Light soy sauce for taste


• Corn starch


• 1tbsp Glutinous rice wine (optional)

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Methods

1. Cut the pork loin into thin slices, knocked with the back of cleaver and marinade with the crushed peppercorns, some light soy sauce and some glutinous rice wine for 15 minutes.


2. Heat up sesame seed oil in frying pan, sprinkle some corn starch onto the sliced marinated pork before frying on medium low heat till cook.

Steamed Minced Pork with Water Chestnuts

Gosh! It has certainly been a loooong while since my last post here. I hardly go into the kitchen when my morning sickness started to kick in in early May. It was so bad that my hubby has to take over the cooking for almost 4 months. In those months we only have simple meals with steamed fish and soup only. The rest of the time I only munch on bread and dry biscuits as anything that has weird taste/smell made me feel like throwing up.

Now I am 32 weeks along and things has certainly got better. In fact I have been feasting quite a bit about 2 months... yeah, getting back! I've also took back the kitchen for a while but due to some traveling the past 2 months, I did not cook as much but rather enjoying all the unhealthy outside food... :P

Though I took back the kitchen, I did not do much new dishes or have the interest to experiment with new ingredients. And my Darrius is also not so cooperative and has been a little pain as he refused to eat by himself. Thus, I have to feed him almost every meal. So, to make life easier, I only can think of doing all the simple yet healthy dishes.

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Ingredients

• 200-300g Pork meat (use pork belly) - minced


• 3-4 Water chestnuts - coarsely chopped


• 2" strip of Dried cuttlefish - coarsely chopped


• 3 Chinese mushrooms- coarsely chopped


• 1tsp Oil


• 1tbsp Corn flour


• 1.5tbsp Light soy sauce


• Dash of pepper


• Water

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Method

1. Mix minced meat with water chestnuts, dried cuttlefish and Chinese mushrooms  together with corn flour, oil, soy sauce and pepper. When well mixed, put it in a light curve dish and flatten the surface.


2. Pour some some water to nicely cover the top, add some light soy sauce to give some color and put into the steamer on medium heat for about 12-15 minutes or till cooked.

Stir Fried Bean Sprouts with Salted Fish

Supposedly the Malaysian Northern regions have very fresh and juicy beansprouts especially in Perak. My mom used to buy 2kg back to KL each time we went back to our hometown near Ipoh. If you've been to Ipoh, their Nga-Choi-Kai or Chicken with bean sprouts is one famous dish. People will order a plate of stir-fried bean sprouts to go with their chicken rice/noodles. Normally we have to pay at least RM4 a plate but if we do it ourselves, it is less than RM1. :)

We folks in Penang do not get to have such good quality bean sprouts all the time. We do get them occasionally but not all the time. Most of the time we get the longer and skinner type/species. My PiggyBeng loves bean sprouts regardless of their size.

One of the weekend he bought a big pack home but he forgotten about it after keeping them in the fridge. I was looking for ingredients to cook a few days later saw them and some are about rot so decided to quickly cook them. I was lucky I still have my last bit of Kurau salted fish with me.

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Ingredients

• 100-150g Bean sprouts (if you have the time, pluck away the roots)


• 3pips Garlic - coarsely chopped


• 1/2 Carrot - cut into thin strips


• 1"x2" Salted fish (preferably Kurau) - sliced thinly


• 1 Red chili - cut into think strips


• 1 stalk Spring onions/Coriander leaf - cut into 2" long sections


• Pepper & light soy sauce for taste

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with some oil and light pan fry the sliced salted fish till fragrant, lift up and set aside.


2. Add some more oil to the walk and saute the garlic till fragrant before stir fry the carrot strips for 2 minutes, toss in the chili and fry for another minute before tossing in the bean sprouts and fry for 2-3 minutes.


3. Sprinklesome pepper and some light soy sauce to taste before tossing in the spring onions or coriander leaf.


4. Lastly add in the salted fish and mix well before serving.

Boiled Sliced Pork with Ginger Soup

One funny thing about pregnant women is they tend to have food cravings! It is one thing that no medical experts can explain why pregnant women have such needs. Well, this is one thing I could not dispute either as I do have different cravings at different time of my pregnancy.

Recently I started to have cravings too (you should be able to guess why!!!) and I just want to have my kind of 'comfort' food. Though the morning sickness has yet to kicks in but I have been thinking a lot about food that I will hardly want to cook or eat on normal days.

Besides craving for Asam Laksa this time, I just wanted to eat something 'warm' and with lots of ginger. I'm not too sure if it is good to consume too much ginger during the early stage of pregnancy since there are no proofs/evidences that they are. I don't cook food with too much ginger everyday so guess it should be fine.

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Ingredients

• 200g Lean pork loin (Yuk-Ngan in Cantonese) - sliced thinly


• 50g Old ginger (you can use young ginger too so not that heaty) - sliced thinly


• 1 Tomato (optional) - remove seeds


• 1tsp Garlic (optional) - finely chopped


• 1.5L Water


• 1.5tsp Corn flour


• 1tbsp Fish sauce for marinade


• Pepper for marinade


• Oil for marinade (soften the meat)


• Salt for taste

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Methods

1. Marinade pork slices with corn flour, fish sauce, pepper and oil and leave for at least 30 minutes prior to cooking.


2. Heat up wok/medium sized pot with a little oil and saute the sliced ginger till fragrant before adding in the chopped garlic as it gets burnt quicker. If you can't stand the smell of garlic, you can omit it.


3. When both ginger and garlic are well sauteed, add in the water, cover and brings it to boil.


4. Add in the sliced pork and stir so they will not stick to each other before adding in the tomato.


5. When it started to boil, add in salt/fish sauce to taste.

Braise Two Beans Pork Belly

Sometimes I just don't know what to cook especially when I am in my 'lazy mood'. If the dish required some additional ingredients and I do not have them at home, I'll just forget about it. Since my Ah Beng is getting more 'health conscious' lately, he has requested that I do minimal frying if I could help it and have steam fish everyday... Don't think I can eat steamed fish everyday though!

Come to think of it, if a dish is 'healthy' it is usually not so flavorful as 'sinful' dishes... :P What do you consider as healthy except salad or maybe a bowl of oatmeal? I really can't think. So, what I do best is to think of all the not so healthy food when I am trapped in such situation! Call me evil if you like! :P

Here is one such dish...

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Ingredients

• 4oog Pork belly (cut into 1" cubes together with skin)


• 1 Red chili (sliced strips)


• 2 Shallots (sliced)


• 1tsp Fermented black beans


• 1tbsp Taucu (fermented soy beans)


• 1tbsp Black sauce


• 1 cup Water


• Light soy sauce (optional)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok (best if using a non stick) and pan fried the pork cubes until 50% cooked. Lift up and set aside.


2. Heat up a medium corning ware or a clay pot with at least 3tbsp of oil and saute the shallots chili till fragrant.


3. Add in the fermented black beans and soy beans and continue to stir. Toss in the pork cubes and add in black sauce, stir and add water. Cover.


4. Once it boils, turn to low heat and simmer for another 30 minutes or until meat turn soft. Add in some light soy sauce if it taste bland.

Peachy Cupcakes

I know that many people prefers to have fruity cakes than some plain ones as they like the extra fruity bites. Personally I like fruity cakes especially those contain fresh fruits. However, it is not easy for us to get suitable fresh fruits here to bake anytime we want. So, we have to make do with canned ones... most of the time.

Here is another of my favorite... peachy cake/cupcakes. I have been using this recipe for a long time. Before the cupcakes fad, I used it to bake full cakes. This recipe is also perfect for a 7" or 8" cake. The wonder is, the tangy taste from the peach helped to diffuse the sweetness from the sugar.

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Ingedients

• 180g Butter


• 120g Sugar


• 180g Plain white flour


• 1tsp Baking powder


• 1tsp Baking soda


• 3 Eggs


• 1tsp Vanilla essence (optional)


• 1 can Peaches (halves) in syrup

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Methods

1. Cream butter and sugar till white and creamy.


2. Add in eggs, one at a time till well mixed. Add vanilla essence.


3. Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda and fold into the batter slowly.


4. Pipe batter into muffin tray lined with cases.


5. Bake at 160 degree Celsius till cooked or when inserted toothpick comes out clean.


6. Sliced halved peach just ¾ and placed on top of cooled cupcake

Home-made Meat Balls

I have been looking for a good recipe for meat balls for quite sometime. I found many recipes using breadcrumbs but I've never bought any before so was quite hesitant to buy a big packet only for making meat balls. Since I am into bento now, it will be another good finger food to store and  pack!

While I was flipping one of the many recipe books in my collection, I discovered one recipe which is quite easy. Though it has a lot of ingredients but I decided to do without most of them except some core ones. The recipes asked for water chestnuts, dried prawns and spring onions but I don't have those with me so I omitted them. Instead I added shallots and breadcrumbs.

I was truly surprised with the results. It tasted better than I've anticipated! I guess what is more important is, they don't disintegrate when I fry them... which was what happened to some of those I did in the past. Finally, I discovered the masking ingredient, which is the good ole white bread! :P

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Ingredients

• 200g Lean meat (I used pork loin)


• 2 Shallots (finely chopped)


• 1.5pcs White bread (removed crust & cut into mini squares)


• 1tbsp Sunflower or Olive oil (original recipe asked for sesame oil)


• 2tbsp Corn flour


• 2 Egg yolks


• 2tbsp Breadcrumbs


• Salt and pepper for taste

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Methods

1. Clean and minced the meat until very fine and mix with all the other ingredients.


2. Use a spoon and scoop wanted amount and roll into balls. Compact the meat balls by throwing the balls into your palm a few times (this will help hold all the ingredients together).


3. Heat up a medium pan with half filled oil and deep fry the meat balls till cook and turned golden brown. Lift up and place them onto paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Ketchup Fish

We had steamed fish at least 2-3 times a week, at the very least. Sometimes we had it like 5 times! My PiggyBeng feels that steamed fish is better as the juice from the fish will not 'evaporate' away so the nutritional value will be in the sauce. Well, I'm not too sure about that but I kinda get sick of steamed fish if we have it too often. :P

Another reason for steaming food is that our kitchen will stay grease free for a longer period. Therefore, there will be less cleaning up to do.

So, to get away from the ordinary, I decided to do some pan-fried fish for a change. Something simple and something my Darrius will like. Which is something with ketchup! :P

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Ingredients

• 1 slice Fish fillet (I used Barramundi/Siakap)


• 1/4 cup Frozen mixed vegetables


• 1 Bombay onion (the purplish type) - sliced


• 2tbsp Ketchup


• 1tsp Corn flour


• 1/2 cup Water


• 1tsp Light soy sauce


• Dash of pepper

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Methods

1. Wash the fish fillet and dry it with a paper towel. Sprinkle some corn flour all over both surfaces (this will avoid the fish from sticking to the frying pan)


2. Heat up frying pan with some oil. Make sure the oil in the pan is hot (you can see steam coming up) before you lie the fish on the pan. Fty till both sides turned golden brown. Lift up and set aside.


3. Using the same pan, saute the sliced onion and then the mixed vegetables until 80% cooked.  Pour in the ketchup mixed together with corn flour, light soy sauce, water and a dash of pepper and cook till boil.


4. Put the fish fillet onto the sauce and let it boil for a while before lifting it up and serve.

Mango Salad

If you've noticed now is the Thai mango season here. We have been buying lots of mango over the last few weeks as all of us love them so much and without fail will indulge in some even when their prices are on the high side. PiggyBeng loves those Green Skin King Mango which is exceptionally crunchy and sweet even when the skin is still dark green in color.

I was shopping at one of the local supermarket chain when I saw that there was an assortment of Thai mango on promotion. Only RM2.90/kg which is so cheap! The Elephant Task looks really nice so I can't resist getting some and thought I'll do mango salad with them since I've chosen some really green and unripe ones. The sour and tangy feel gave me a really good vibes! :P

We have been eating too much meat lately so thought a salad dish will be good for the heart and the body!

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Ingredients

• 2-3 Mango (preferably the sour and unripe ones)


• 1/2 stick Carrot (optional) - I added in for color purposes


• 1 stalk Lemongrass


• 2-3 Shallot


• 2 Lime (take the juice and thinly sliced the rind)


• 1-2 Calamansi/Limau Kasturi (take the juice and thinly sliced the rind)


• Some Corriander (leaves only - finely chopped)


• 1-2tbsp Dried prawn - pan fried and chopped coarsely


• 2-3tbsp Dried shrimps (optional)


• 1 Chili padi - sliced thinly


• 2-3tbsp Fish sauce


• 3tbsp brown sugar


• A pinch of salt


• Some chili powder (optional)


• 1/4 cup Roasted peanuts (whole or coarsely chopped)

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Methods

1. In a low heated pan, simply pan-fried the dried shrimps and chopped dried prawns till it is slightly fragrant. Lift up and set aside.


2. Sliced the shallot, lemongrass (just the head), coriander leaves, chili padi, lime and calamansi rinds very thinly.


3. Slice away the mango skin and shred them into thin strips. Do the same for carrot if you are adding them.


4. Put everything into a big mixing bowl and add in brown sugar, fish sauce, lime and calamansi juice and some salt. Mix well before adding the roasted peanuts and mix once more before serving.


5. Best if served right away or else the juice from the mango will 'wet' the mixture.

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If you can get hold of some ginger flowers, you can add them in too as they will give the salad a better taste.

Pan-Fried Oyster Sauce Drumlets

I have been doing quite a lot of kids bento for Darrius lately which prompted me to come out with a lot of finger food recipes.  Though Darrius is pretty receptive to what ever I served him but there are still food that he will refuse. Therefore I will try to create different recipes using the same few ingredients.

Darrius is a huge fan of the pan-fried soy sauce chicken so I used that recipe to make drumlets which is very convenient to be packed into bento box as compared to chicken drumsticks. Today I am using oyster sauce instead.

Previously I never keep any oyster sauce at home simply because PiggyBeng believed that oyster sauce was made of left over water from fish in the market. o_O Yeah, apparently my BIL who used to operate a Chinese restaurant in Europe and he was told that this was how oyster sauce derived from. :P

Luckily I do watch TV and I've learned from a Master Chef (Tho-tho) from Hong Kong that oyster sauce actually came from boiling the fresh oysters with some ingredients.

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Ingredients

• 6 Chicken drumlets


• 1tbsp Oyster sauce


• 1tsp Brown sugar


• 1/2tsp Dark soy sauce


• Dash of pepper

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Methods

1. Wash and dry the chicken drumlets with a paper towel. Marinade the chicken drumlets with all the ingredients and best leave over night.


2. Heat up the wok with little oil (the skin from the chicken will release oil) and pan fried all the drumlets on low heat.


3. When the drumlets are about 90% cooked, pour in the remaining sauce from the marinade and cook till all the drumlets are fully glazed with the sauce.

Simple Chicken Teriyaki on Skewers

Yesterday I went to Tesco to do my weekly marketing and has wanted to look for some chicken wings but they ran out of stock. Only saw some miserable chicken thighs and some ok looking chicken breast meat so decided to get a pack of the latter.

Normally I'll use them for stir-fying with some vegetables but since I have quite a few pieces, I decided to de-bone them and make some simple teriyaki chicken on skewers since Darrius likes eating 'satay'. I pan fried it as I was lazy to start the oven. :P

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Ingredients

• Satay/bamboo sticks


• Japanese cucumber

Marinade

• 300g Chicken breast meat fillet (cut into square bite size)


• 1tsp Black sauce


• 1tbsp  Light soy sauce


• 1tbsp Mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine)


• 1tsp Corn flour


• 1tsp Olive oil


• 1tbsp Brown sugar


• Dash of pepper

Sauce

• 1tbsp Brown sugar


• 1tsp Corn flour


• 1tsp Black sauce


• 1tbsp Light soy sauce


• 1/2 cup Water

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Methods

1. Debone the chicken meat if there's any, wipe dry with a paper kitchen towel and cut into square bite size.  Marinade and leave it for a few hours in the chiller.


2. Heat up frying pan with some oil and slowly pan fried the chicken cubes till cooked. Lift then up and put aside.


3. Continue on the frying pan with the sauce ingredients and cook till it comes to a boil and toss in the chicken cubes and let the sauce absorb into the chicken cubes on low fire. Lift up and skewer them onto bamboo sticks  and alternate with a slice of Japanese cucumber.

Fried Pumpkin with Dried Prawns

I used to buy pumpkin on a weekly basis last time when Darrius was still on porridge. I cut down after he moved on to rice so I only buy once in a while. I normally steam a few slices in the rice cooker and smash it up with the rice and serve it to Darrius. Pumpkin is highly nutritional and good for kids as well as adults.

There was still a big portion left after a week so I decided to cook this dish, one of my favorite pumpkin dish. Not sure where this dish originate from but I learned it from my mom.

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Ingredient

• 200g Golden pumpkin (cut into thick slice)


• 30g Dried prawns (soften by crushing them in a mortar & pestle)


• 1tbsp Garlic (corsley chopped)


• 1tbsp Brown sugar


• 1/2 cup water


• Light soy sauce for taste

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Method

1. Heat up wok with some oil and fry the dried prawns till fragrant. Lift them up and keep aside.


2. Add some more oil to the wok and pan fry the pumpkin slices till golden brown. Lift up and set aside.


3. Add oil to the wok again and saute the chopped garlic till fragrant. Toss in the pumpkin, stir and add in the brown sugar. Add in water, stir and simmer for 5 minutes.


4. Toss in the dried prawns and continue to stir before adding some light soy sauce. Lift up and serve.

Japanese Sweet Potato Broiche

Though I am a part time cupcake seller, I must confess I seldom bake any other stuff besides... well, cupcakes! :P My oven is solely for my cupcakes and sometimes my Ah Beng will use it to make some grill stuff and that's about it.

After checking out a few new blogs, I decided that I need to be adventurous again and try new things with my oven. Then I spotted this really nice looking bread which is called broiche from Javapot's blog. I must say it looked really tempting then so I quickly went to get some bread flour and sweet potatoes.

Since I was in Jusco, I bought the Japanese sweet potatoes thinking it might have more flavors as compared to our local grown ones.

This is my very first time baking anything using bread flour or bread as a matter of fact! Though I have helped my mom a couple of times in making steamed paus I've never ventured into bread making alone.

One thing about bread making is, the proofing period which can takes a while. Being so inexperience in this area, I can say that I have no ideas how long I should proof my dough! Well, at least the broiches turned out quite ok... when it is fresh out of the oven! :P

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Ingredients

• 125g mashed sweet potato


• 210g bread flour


• 2 eggs


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 1/2 tsp instant yeast


• 36g sugar (add slowly)


• 107g butter, room temperature

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Method

1. Mix and knead all ingredients except sugar and butter. I'll suggest using a gloves as the ingredients will sticks onto your fingers.


2. After 5 min, add sugar slowly. (I added mine too soon so that's why it did not raise as much as it should)


3. Add butter after 15 min and knead until you get a soft pliable dough.


4. Let the dough rest in room temperature for 1 hour.


5. Divide the dough into size required (the dough should be light and airy under your fingers but still a little sticky so u glaze your palms with some butter before handling).


6. Cover/wrap and refrigerate dough over night.


7. Next day, shape chilled dough as desired and placed them into greased tins.


8. Cover/wrap shaped dough and rest in warm place for another 1.5 hours or at least double in bulk. (I was a little anxious and inexperience so did not let it proof enough)


9. Bake in a pre-heated oven @ 190 degrees for 30-35 min or until golden brown (including the base).


10. Cool in tin for 8 min before removing them and completely cool them on rack.

Banana Cupcakes

Before I started my own cupcake shoppe, I used to bake for our own consumption. Long before I attempted the steamed banana cupcakes, I used to do the baked version very often. Since my PiggyBeng has been complaining that we are eating too much fat (butter) as we have to chomp down all the excess cuppies from some of my orders, I seldom bake for ourselves anymore unless there is a birthday.

I must admit that steaming is simpler and less work and of course healthier but at times baked stuff has more fragrance and they have longer shelf live. Therefore, once in a while when I have the ingredients sitting around in the house I will still make an effort...

Here is a banana cupcake recipe which I got from one of the popular site but forgotten which since I am such a sloppy person! I have modified it a little to our taste. Everyone at home love it so I thought I'll just share it here with everyone. :)

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Ingredients
Makes 2 dozens

• 300g Flour


• 2tsp Baking powder


• 2tsp Bicarbonate of soda


• ½ tsp Salt


• 200g Sugar


• 220g Butter


• 4 Eggs (medium size)


• 400g Bananas (I used pisang emas) - mashed


• 5tbsp Milk


• 1tsp Vanilla essence


• 1tsp Banana essence (optional)

Methods

1. Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a mixing bowl.


2. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy white. Add beaten eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition.


3. Add in vanilla essence or banana essence, milk and mashed bananas.


4. Fold in flour and mix well. Pour mixture into muffin cups (3/4 cup) and add a slice of banana on top before sending the tray into the oven and bake at 180?C for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cuppies comes out clean.

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Tips: Turn your cupcakes tray after 15 minutes into baking to ensure eveness

Pan Fried Tom Yum Chicken

After away from Penang for almost 2 weeks, I do crave for something sour and spicy. I have wanted to get my Asam Laksa fix from the hawker behind our house but with the weather so hot, I dreaded walking out of the house.

Then I was running out of idea what to cook. PiggyBeng was ever so happy if I steam him his Barramundi fillets but to be very honest, I am so bored eating the same old dish a few times a week! Luckily I bought some chicken drumsticks as spares which I normally used for lunch.

Initially i have wanted to cook pan fried curry chicken with curry leaves. I even went to pluck some curry leaves from my neighbour's garden! Then I discovered I did not have the appropriate curry powder at home! Dang! PiggyBeng only bought those for curry fish since he cook curry fish all the time.

Therefore I have to change my menu. Luckily I spotted the Tom Yum paste which I bought for my instant noodles. Sometimes back I bought some Japanese instant noodles and the flavor sucks so I bought the Tom Yum paste to replace.

And tadaaaa.... we have Pan Fried Tom Yum Chicken! :)

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Ingredients

• 2pcs Chicken drumsticks


• 1tbsp Tom Yum paste


• Lemon juice

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Methods

1. Cut the chicken drumsticks into thin pieces and marinate with Tom Yum paste and let it stand for 30 minutes.


2. Heat up wok with some oil in medium heat and slowly pan fried the chicken pieces until cooked.


3. When done, squeeze some lemon juice before serving.

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This Peace Brand Tom Yum paste is not so spicy so kids can take them. :)

Chinese Cabbage Soup with Fish Maw

It was the Lunar New Year a few weeks back and here in Penang, majority of the people will have steamboat for their reunion dinner which is the meal on the eve of the Lunar New Year. However, we did not have any steamboat this year as we went to celebrate the occasion with my parents in Ipoh.

Then we went to KL on the 9th Day of the Lunar New Year for almost 2 weeks. During our stay in KL, my mom managed to whip up a few meals for us to enjoy. During one of the meals she boiled this really yummy Chinese cabbage soup using a particular Chinese cabbage which is only available during this festive season... well, according to her lar! :P

So, upon returning to Penang, I have to do some marketing to stock up for the week and I found this particular cabbage selling in Tesco. Since the weather is extremely hot here, having cabbage soup is ideal since it has a cooling effect (according to the Chinese lar).

I bought some fish maw during our pre-CNY  groceries shopping and since we did not get to use them for reunion dinner I added them into the cabbage soup instead. These gave the soup more fragrance.

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This cabbage looks a little different as compared to the regular Chinese cabbage

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Ingredients

• 1 whole Chinese cabbage peel and cit into half


• 2 sticks Carrot (cut into small blocks)


• 250g Pork ribs


• 2L Water


• 10-12 Red dates (de-seed)


• 6-8 pcs Dried oysters


• Some Dried cuttlefish


• 50g Fish maw


• Salt for taste

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Methods

1. Heat up water in a pot and put in pork ribs when it boils. Let it boil for a while and remove all the scums.


2. Add in the red dates, dried cuttlefish, dried oysters and carrot and let them boil on slow heat for about 30 minutes. Add in the Chinese cabbage and continue to boil till it is soft... approximately for another hour.


3. In a separate saucepan, boil some water and blanch the pre-soaked fish maw for about 5 minutes. Don't have to cook too long as the gelatin will melt away.


4. When the soup is done (around 1.5 to 2 hours) add in some salt for taste and toss in the the soften fish maw for another 10 minutes on high heat. Serve.

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

Life has definitely been very hectic the past few months and hence I did not get to do much experiments from any of the cookery or recipe books on my book shelf.

Since it is the Lunar New Year now and we will be going to KL tomorrow, I decided to bake some goodies to bring for some of the friends I will be meeting. Initially i have wanted to just use the regular recipes I have been using but after looking through one of the recipe books I thought I'll try a new one.

Found this really nice and easy to do chocolate brownie cupcakes from the 500 Cupcakes & Muffins book by Fergal Connolly.

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Ingredients
(makes 12 cupcakes)

• 125g Plain chocolate chips (I used cooking chocolate bar)


• 125g Unsalted butter (I used salted butter)


• 2 Eggs


• 300g Castor sugar (I used 200g only)


• 1tsp Vanilla essence


• 115g Plain flour

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Methods

1. Melt chocolate and butter in a medium bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring until melt. Set aside to cool.


2. In another medium bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale and thick using a whisk.


3. Fold in the chocolate and the flour until well mixed. The batter should be gooey and sticky.


4. Spoon batter into cases and bake @ 160 degree Celsius for about 25 minutes.


5. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before removing from tray and cool on rack.

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You can make some cream topping if you want but it tastes good as it is!  :)

Homemade Flower Shaped Bread Pizza

Some of you know that I am into bento-ing right now and has been learning to make simple snacks to 'decorate' my bentos. I can tell you it is not as easy as it seems as my boy is beginning to be very picky with his food now. A few weeks ago, he told me he don't like vege! All this while he has been a good boy eating almost anything I served him.

Sometimes it can be brain cracking... since I have to think about the designs to come out for my cupcake projects. Even though I don't have much time to spare these days, I will still try to lurk in some really good recipes blogs to get some ideas. Today's idea came from my favorite blog. Aunty Yochana has been very inspiring and I learned a lot just by browsing her blog.

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I have some white bread and want to get rid of them so my fridge will have some space so I decided to bake some bread pizza. I had some tomato paste from one of my pizza making adventure earlier and thought it a good idea to clear the tomato paste.

To make the beautiful shape, I used a flower cutter to cut and squeeze each piece into the muffin tray after spreading them with some tomato paste.

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Ingredients
(Make 6)

• 6 slices of Bread (White or Wholemeal)


• 1 slice Chicken ham (cut into small squares)


• 1/4 cup Mixed vegetables (corn, green peas & carrot)


• Mayonnaise (to mix with ham and mixed vege)


• 1 slice cheddar cheese (cut into small strips)


• Tomato paste (for spreading on bread)

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Methods

1. Cut out the flower shaped bread using the cutter and spread a thin layer of tomato paste in the centre and squeeze into muffin pan cavities.


2. Mix Mayonnaise and mixed vegetable and ham pieces and slowly scoop into each 'flower bowl' and topped with cheddar cheese strips.


3. Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 minutes at 180 degree Celsius.