Achar

I loved mum's achar so much that I just got to get her to teach me how to cook it. I tried making the chilli paste myself but it just doesn't taste the same as mum's so I got her to made me some chilli paste.

The ingredients: long beans, carrots, cucumbers, round cabbage, pineapple, sesame seeds and grounded groundnuts.

Chill it before serve. Taste really good. Mum even said that mine was better than hers, lols..

Japanese cheesecake 2

Baked Japanese cheesecake again today and has changed the method a little bit. Unlike the first time now the cake did not sink.

Chill it before serve. Taste really good after it is chilled.

The ingredients I use:
150g cream cheese (at room temperature)
50g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
60g milk

15g lemon juice
4 egg yolks

35g corn flour
35g superfine flour

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
70g sugar

Method:
1. Mixed cream cheese and butter well first then double boil it. Keep stirring until you see both the butter has melted then add in the milk. Continue stirring about 3 mins.
2. Take the mixture off from the double boiler. Add in the egg yolks immediately, mix it well then add in the lemon juice.
3. Sieve the corn flour and superfine flour together then add into the mixture.
4. Beat up the egg whites, add in the salt and the sugar. Beat until the egg white come to a stiff.
5. Add the mixture to the egg whites.
6. Bake in water for 115 mins at 160degC.

Hello kitty birthday cake

Baked two hello kitty cakes, one for my niece and the other one for my daughter.

Their birthday are only 3 days apart so we celebrated it on the same day.

Here are the cakes,

The hello kitty is just agar-agar that I have actually make it just for fun but then it ended up on top the cake....

I was running a bit late after all the cooking and cleaning and so I just want to do a simple cake decoration and have it done quickly. I looked around and the two hello kitty agar agar caught my eyes and that is how it ended up on the cake. Not a bad idea right?

Both my niece and daughter love the cakes.

Durian cream birthday cake

My brother's birthday cake













It's a durian cream cake.

Any normal chiffon cake will do and use non dairy fresh cream + durian puree for decoration.

Puff

...

.

It's really easy to made. Preparation time is less than 5 mins and baking time is 15 mins.

Sweet corn pudding

It's not too bad. Tasted even better with some creamer added to it.

Cooking pork ribs and eggs

Ingredients:

10 pieces mushroom (soaked in water to soften it then cut into half, keep the water that you soak the mushroom with)

500g pork ribs

Carrot (I did not state how many carrots because it is entirely up to you, if you like carrot you can have more. Cut them into large pieces)

Hard boiled eggs (again the quantity is entirely up to you but take out the shell first)

Garlics (leave the skin where possible)

Cooking oil

Light soy sauce - 2~3 tbsp

Dark soy sauce - more or less 50g

Sesame oil - more or less 25g

Chinese rice wine - more or less 50g

Pepper powder

Salt

1. Heat up the wok. Pour in some cooking oil to brown the garlic. Put in the carrot and stir fry it a bit then follow by the mushrooms. Next put in the meat. I normally sprinkler some pepper powder over the meat at this stage. Stir fry all the things until you see the meat is slightly cook.

2. Put in light soy sauce, follow by the sesame oil then the dark soy sauce and last the Chinese rice wine. Stir fry a bit then add in the water that you use to soaked the mushroom. The water should rise slightly above all the things in your wok. Add in some salt.

3. Put all the hard boiled eggs into a cooking pot and transfer all the things in your wok to the pot.

4. Cook/simmer it over low heat for about 1/2 hour. Check it once in a while if the water almost dry up then you should add in more water.

Additionally, you can also add some tau pok or bean skin if you like.

Chocolate chips, hazelnut & walnut cookies

Recipe:

250g unsalted butter

130g castor sugar

1 whole egg

1tsp vanilla essence

300g superfine flour

30g cocoa powder

1tsp baking powder

1/2tsp sodium bicarbonate

50g walnuts (chopped)

50g hazel nuts (chopped)

50g chocolate chips

1. cream the butter and sugar on low speed until well combine then increase the speed and continue creaming until fluffy. Add in the eggs and vanilla essence - continue to cream for another 3 minutes or so.

2. sift superfine flour, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate and cocoa powder and add into mixture. Mix on low speed to form a dough.

3. add in the walnuts, hazel nuts and chocolate chips and mix well.

4. shape the cookies into small balls and place them onto a greased baking tray.

5. bake in preheated oven at 180C for 16 minutes.

Very simple ABC soup

Cooking soup could be really easy and no fuss. I cooked ABC soup today.

Here are the ingredient I use:

Carrot

Potato

Tomato

Onion

Groundnut (Optional)

Meat pieces (either pork ribs or chicken, I normally use chicken meat)

Method:

1. Cut the carrot, tomato and onions into pieces (don't cut too small). Put them into the slow cooker together with some water. If you like groundnut you can add the groundnuts in. Let it cook for about 4 hours.

2. Put in the chicken meat. Let it cook for another 1/2 hour or so.

3. Cut the potato into half and put them into the soup. Continue to cook for a further one hour or so or until the potato is soft.

4. Taste the soup first before you add any salt. The soup tasted really sweet in its original taste so the amount of salt to put in is up to you.

My daughter like to add mee suah to her soup or you can also add beehoon if you like. I prefer mine without any noodles but with lots of groundnuts.

And so that is our dinner, simple yet healthy.

Rice wine mee suah

I like ginger only if it is cooked with meat and sesame oil but not if it is fried with vegetables like how the vegetarian restaurant cooked it. I just cannot stand the ginger taste in the vegetables and I was told that vegetarian cannot take garlic so most of their dishes are cooked with ginger instead.

I cooked some meat with lots of ginger and sesame oil today and I have also added some rice wine that my aunt made.

Tasted just the way I like it. It was a bit spicy though because of all the ginger.

My daughter had it with rice whereas I had mine with mee suah. I also added some fried eggs and a lot more rice wine to my mee suah. Yum...

Tau pok and golden needles soup

I always use the slow cooker to cook soup. It is really easy and simple. I cooked tau pok and golden needles (dried lily bud) soup today.

The picture below are the ingredients:

some groundnuts

some golden needles (put 2 together and type a knot)

some tau pok

some chicken pieces

The method:

1. put some water in the slow cooker

2. throw in the groundnuts and golden needles and just let it boil in the slow cooker. I left it boiled over 4 hours

3. Then put in the tau pok and chicken pieces

4. The soup is ready when the chicken pieces are cooked. It take about 1 hours. Try the soup first before you add any salt then add the salt according to your preference.

Fried cellophane noodle (2)

I fried some cellophane noodle again today and as usual the ingredients I use are what I can find in my fridge.

Preparation and cooking take less than 30 minutes. Simple and tasty and no MSG.

Chocolate chiffon cake

I like the chocolate chiffon cake that I baked yesterday. It is really spongy and tasted good. Of the many chocolate chiffon cake recipe that I have tried I like this one the most.








Here's what I use:

5 1/2 egg yolks
30g castor sugar
80g cooking oil
80g UHT milk
3g vanilla essence

110g superfine flour
2g baking powder

6 egg whites
2g salt
50g castor sugar

40g warm water
10g cocoa powder

Bibimbap (2)

Cooked bibimbap for lunch again. Yummy ......