Accidental - Cranberries Muffins

Last Sunday we did not go any where to shop except to Tesco for groceries shopping. So I have quite a bit of time and since I still have a block of Golden Churn in my fridge, I decided to bake some cupcakes. Initially I have wanted to bake the Nutella cupcakes but I changed my mind when I saw a Blueberries muffins recipe on the recipe leaflet that came with my Blue Key Self Raising Flour.

Then, half way through, Darrius woke up from his nap and was rather cranky. He refused to play on his own or with PiggyBeng so I brought him into the dining room and let him sit there watching me. He was making lots of noise and insisted he wants to play with this and that.

Lousy me, get so distracted and I ended up not putting the eggs into the batter! And that was not all. I even mixed them on the wrong sequence and ended up just dump in everything and mix! And guess what? The muffins turned out lovely!

So, here sharing with you my eggless Accidental - Cranberries Muffins!

.

.

Ingredients

• 300g (2 3/4 cups) Self Raising flour - sifted


• 150g Castor sugar


• 15g (2tbsp) Milk powder


• 30g (5tbsp) Honey


• 120g (1/2 cup) Butter/margerine


• 50g Cranberries - chopped to smaller pieces


• 165g (3/4 cup) Water


• 3g (1/2 tsp) Vanilla Essence

.

Method

1. Mix sugar, milk powder, margerine, flour and honey together till well mixed.


2. Add in water and vanilla and mix till all blend in.


3. Add in cranberries and put into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 mins at 180 degree celcius.


4. Removed from oven and let it cool on rack

.

3 Eggs Spinach

I bought a lot of 'Yuen-Choy' (Spinach) for Darrius's porridge. Sometimes the bundle can be really huge so I will take half to cook for ourselves. Normally I will just do a simple stir-fry with chopped garlic but there are times when the fancy struck, I will try to come out with something new.

Many years back, when I was still working in Singapore, I often patronise this Chinese restaurant called Crystal Jade. They have this dish '3 Eggs with Spinach' cooked using chicken broth which is really yummy. I tried to dish this out and the result was not that bad after all....

.

. 

Ingredients

• 1 bundle Yuen-choy (Spinach)


• 1tsp Chopped garlic


• 1 Chicken egg (beaten)


• 1 Century egg (cut into smaller sections)


• 1 Salted duck egg (cut into small pieces)


• 1/2 cup Chicken broth


• Salt to taste

Methods

1. Heat up wok with 1 tbsp of oil, saute the chopped garlic till fragrant. Add in the spinach (with the stems de-skined) and stir for a minute or two before covering for 2 minutes.


2. When the spinach is soften, pour in the chicken broth and let it boil on slow-medium fire for another 2-3 minutes with cover on.


3. Add in the cut century egg and salted egg (only the yolk), stir for a while till the salted egg yolk turned slightly creamy colour. Beat the chicken egg and pour in slowly while stirring to disintegrate. Served hot.

.

Spare Ribs with Pineapple Cubes

I have some pineapple cubes left from my fried rice the other day so I'm trying to clear them. Since i have some spare ribs with me and I have no idea what to do with them, I decided to try the 'Poh-Loh Ku-at' (Pineapple ribs) style. The ingredients are all concocted by me so it might be different from those you order at the 'Je-Char' (big fry) stalls. The taste was quite close so I decided to share with all of you.

.

.

Ingredients

• 300-400g Spare ribs


• 1/4 can Pineapple cubes


• 1tsp Corn flour


• 1tbsp Tomato Ketchup


• 1tsp Light soy sauce


• 2tbsp Pineapple syrup (from the can)


• 1/4 cup water for sauce


• Sugar for taste (optional)


• Oil for frying


• Corn flour to thicken sauce

.

Methods

1. Marinate the spare ribs with corn flour and light soy sauce for about 30 minutes.


2. Heat up oil in a deep saucepan to deep fry the marinated spare ribs for about 10-15 minutes on medium to small fire until golden brown. Lift up and let oil drip dry.


3. Heat up wok with a little oil, put in mixture of water, tomato ketchup, pineapple syrup and a little sugar and stir for a while till it started to boil, add in pineapple cubes, stir and add in the ribs and stir.


4. Continue stirring for a few minutes, then add a little corn flour mixed with some water into the wok and let the sauce thicken. Voila!

.

Stir-fry Local Brussel Sprouts with Dried Prawns

Not sure if this is the correct term for 'Choy-tam' the local version of Brussel sprouts. PiggyBeng likes this vege a lot and I will normally stir-fry them with dried prawns sambal chili.

As I did not have any dried prawns sambal with me so I twist the recipe a little by just using the dried prawns with chili padi. It turned out quite ok. Also, it is a very simple dish to prepare.

.

.

Ingredients

• 7-8 stalks Choy-tam


• 1tsp chopped garlic


• 1tbsp Dried prawns


• 1 Chili padi


• Salt for taste

.

Methods

1. Heat up wok with 1tbsp oil and stir-fry the dried prawns (softened by using the pestle and mortar) till fragrant. Add in the garlic and chili and continue to stir.


2. Throw in the Choy-tam and stir-fry for 2 minutes, add a little water (to help softern the vege), cover for another 1 minute.


3. Add in a little salt (not too much as the dried prawns are salty) and continue to stir till the vege looks soft. Served.

.

Corn with Spare Ribs Soup

As I am starting to train Darrius to eat rice, I have been boiling more nutritional type of soup so he can have them with his rice. My mom has been telling me to cook more corn for Darrius as they are quite nutritional.

I love corn soup even before I had Darrius. It taste really sweet if milk corns or those organic pearl corns are being used. Sometimes I will add in some dried osyters or scallops or even water chestnuts to give the soup extra sweetness.

.

.


Ingredients

• 3-4 sticks Corns (cut into smaller blocks)


• 300g Spare ribs


• 3L Water


• 1-2 sticks Carrots (cut into smaller chunks)


• 4-5 pcs Dried oysters or scallops (optional)


• 6-8 pcs Water chestnuts (optional)


• 10pcs Red dates (pitted)

.

Methods

1. Bring water to boil, add in the spare ribs and let it boil for 5 minutes.


2. Add in the the corn blocks, cut carrots, water chestnuts, red dates and dried oysters or scallops and bring to boil before turning the fire to small.


3. Let the soup boil for 2 to 2.5 hours before adding some salt to taste. I prefer not to add salt since I'll be feeding Darrius some. The soup gets its sweetness from the corn and water chestnuts.

.

Pineapple Fried Rice

When I was living in Perth, Australia, one of the food joint that I visit quite frequently is Hans Cafe, an Asian Cuisine place that has a mix of Vietnamnese, Thai and Chinese. In fact there is one branch just 5 minutes walk from the place I'm staying so it's rather convenient for me which I often go for take aways. The other branch that I used to frequent with my mates is their branch in William Street, Northbridge which is in Perth's Chinatown.

One of my personal favourite is their version of pineapple fried rice. It's different from those regular Thai style pineapple fried rice which is yellow in colour and come with either pork or chicken floss as the topping/garnish. A plate will cost around AUD$6.50 which is enough for 2 pax if you are not a big eater.

Since I love to eat this pineapple fried rice so much, I decided to come out with my own version. Hope you will love it too! :)

.

.

Ingredients

• 150g Chicken meat (cut into 2cm cubes or thin strips)


• 11/2 cup Rice (pre-cooked the day before and put in the fridge)


• 1 cup mixed vege (carrot, corn and peas) or other beans of your choice


• 1 Onion (cut thin strips) - optional


• 1/2 can Pineapple cubes or you can use fresh pineapple


• 2 eggs (beaten)


• Light soy sauce


• Corn flour


• Pepper

.

Methods

1. Marinate the chicken cubes with some corn flour, pepper and light soy sauce.


2. Heat up wok with about 2tbsp oil, stir fry the mixed vege until soft or lightly brown, lift up.


3. Add another tbsp of oil and saute the onion strips till light brown, throw back the cooked mixed vege in and continue to stir.


4. Open up the the mixture above and leave a hole in the middle of the wok, stir fry the chicken cubes till 80% cooked. Then stir in the rest of the vege.


5. Pour in the cooked rice and stir till all are well mixed. Add in light soy sauce and stir till mixed well. Beat in the eggs and continue to stir. Add another tbsp of oil if needed.


6. Add in the pineapple cubes and stir till well mixed before serving.


7. Garnish with egg omelette strips.

.

Fried Mince Meat Wantan Mee

This is a long over-due post.... :mrgreen:

Remember my makan-makan trip up north back in June? We went back to our old hometown and there's this wantan mee stall which was one of the better ones around since my father's time and they are also our ex-neighbour. They actually made the noodles themselves and not get it from the noodles manufacturer hence their noodles are free from all kinds of preservatives.

Since we are going there, my dad called them up and ordered around 50 pcs of wantan noodles from them as my mom want to give to her neighbour in KL. My mom gave me some to bring back to Penang too. And this is what I came out with....

.

.

Ingredients

• 200-300g Pork belly (minced)


• 4-5pcs Chinese mushrooms (soak and sliced thinly)


• 1/2 bulb Garlic (chopped finely)


• 5pcs Wantan mee (noodles)


• Black sauce


• Light soy sauce


• Pepper


• Water


• Choy Sum/green vege for garnishing (optional)

.

Methods

1. Prepare the minced meat (topping) first. Heat up wok with a little oil and fry the minced pork belly (don't have to use too much oil as the pork belly will have lots of oil when being fried). When it's half cooked, add in the chopped garlic (add now so the garlic will not get burned) and stir till about 80% cooked add in the sliced mushrooms, stir and add in some black sauce to your desired tone. Add in some water (add more if you want more sauce) and cover the wok to let the water soften the mushroom.


2. In another sauce pan, boil water with a drops of oil to cook the wantan mee. Pepare a bowl of cold water (better if using iced water) to use as 'crossing the cold river' so the noodles will have this springy feel. When the water boiled, put in the noodles and cook till about 80% cooked take out and let it 'cross the cold river' before returning it into the hot water again for a brief moment and lift up.


3. Now back to the short braising of the minced pork, add in light soy sauce and pepper to taste before lifting it up.


4. On a clean wok, pour in the cooked minced meat and the cooked noodles and stir-fry till all are mixed well. Served with boiled Choy sum or other green vege of your choice.

.