Rosemary, mint and garlic Lamb Chops

Tis' the season for green and red. We don't usually eat lamb, because it's impossible to find fresh lamb in supermarkets here, otherwise it's expensive. Not to mention we've been reminded time and time again about how it's more unhealthy compared to other meats. But last week, I saw frozen shoulder chops and thought it's the season to treat ourselves. Just once in a while, why not eh? In fact, we were pleasantly surprised that despite being frozen, we enjoyed it so much, I reckon it was better than the dried up tiny bitsy one I had at Botak Jones recently!
Ingredients
two 250g lamb chops
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp ground black pepper
3 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp cooking oil
3 tsp mustard


Method
1) Add the garlic, herbs, salt and pepper to the cooking oil and stir well. Rub well into the meat and leave to marinade for at least 1 hour.
2) Place in a foil covered baking tray. Grill on high heat for 20 - 25 minutes, turning over halfway.
3) Leave the cooked chop to rest for 10 minutes, wrapped up in the foil to keep warm. Use this time to make the sauce. To make the sauce, drain away some of the oil. Scrape all the stuff off the bottom of the pan and add the mustard. Whisk in well. Add more salt and pepper to taste if necessary. You can also drizzle in some olive oil if desired.
4) Serve on a bed of salad leaves and drizzle the sauce over the chop.

Black pepper and Herb crusted Pork Chops

I am indeed beginning to realise that I have no other joy in life other than food. Oh dear. I have become one of 'those' Singaporeans. Perhaps middle age has truly hit.
Anyhow, thanks to Gordon Ramsey's inspiration, here is my rendition of what he did with his mint and herb crusted lamb chops. The roughly ground peppercorns in my recipe will give the porkchops a crusty and peppery exterior.
Ingredients2 pork chops, with bone in (always tastes better during the cooking process)
4 tbsp whole black peppercorns
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sage
1 clove garlic, diced
1 tsp cooking oil
Method1) In a pestle and mortar, rougly grind up the black peppercorns. Add the herbs and garlic and incorporate. Don't overly grind the peppercorns. It's not meant to be a smooth paste.
2) Pat dry the pork chops. Pour out the peppercorn mixture on a flat plate. Coat both sides of the pork chops with the cooking oil, before 'breading' them with the peppercorn mixture. Leave to marinate for at least 1 hour, or overnight for best results.
3) Optional: Pan sear the porkchops to caramelize them.
4) Transfer onto a baking tray, lined with aluminum foil. Bake the pork chops in an oven, 200 deg C for 20 mins.
5) Serve with freshly garlic toasted bread.

Lettuce cup stirfry

I was inspired by the Korean style of wrapping cold cold fresh lettuce around hot hot meat. This dish is quite common in chinese restaurants. I'm not too sure of the origins, but I believe its probably Northern Chinese in origin. Usually served as an appetiser, you can also use man tou instead of lettuce to wrap the meat in.
Ingredients350g minced pork
1 red onion, diced
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced
8 dry shitake mushrooms, soaked in water to rehydrate and then finely diced. Reserve the water (approx 1/2 cup)
1 carrot, julienned
1 small iceberg lettuce
Oil for stir frying

Marinade
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1 tbsp sesame seed oil
1 tbsp corn flour

Method1) Marinade the minced pork with the marinade ingredients. Leave to stand for a least 15 minutes.
2) To prepare the lettuce, cut into half, down the stem. Cut off the core and slowly try to open it up for the water to get in. Soak in ice water for 15 mins and then the leaves separate very easily and can be removed whole. Dry as best as possible and set aside.
3) Heat up the oil in the wok. Stir fry the onions and ginger until fragrant.
4) Pour in the minced pork and fry till 3/4 cooked.
5) Add the carrots and mushrooms and fry briefly.
6) Add the water from soaking the mushrooms. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.
7) Serve immediately. Eat by wrapping the mince in the lettuce.

No knead bread

From the original article on no knead bread,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
came this website http://aresrocket.com/bread/ which better-ed the recipe.

Sambal Kangkong

I actually did this with spinach but of course it's more well-known with kang kong. The pounding crushes the ingredients and releases fragrant oils that aren't released if they are 'cut' using a food processor or blender. This is the key to nonya cooking - the humble pestle and mortar. But of course, in this modern day and age, who has the time to pound pound pound? For me however, it is therapeutic - pounding away my anger and frustrations. But it took me a good half hour!

Ingredients

2 sticks of lemongrass, roughly chopped

Half a white onion (optimally, use 3 shallots), roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, roughly chopped

2 tbsp dried shrimp (hay bee)

4 dried chillies, soaked in hot water until soft and deseeded (This gives only a slight spiciness, go up to 10 chillies if you think you can take it!)

2 tsp balachan

1 tsp sugar

3 tbsp cooking oil

1/4 cup water

1 big bunch of kang kong

Method

1) Pound all the ingredients, going in the order given in the ingredients above, omitting the sugar, cooking oil and water.

2) In a wok, heat up the cooking oil. This may seem like a lot but the sambal will soak it up. Fry the pounded ingredients using a medium heat until the it has a shiny and slightly oily texture. Watch the fire as it burns easily!

3) Add the water. Beware as this will splatter and produce a lot of steam! Turn down the fire. Stir until the water is incorporated and it is no longer watery. Add slightly more water if it becomes too dry.

4) Add the tsp of sugar. If necessary, add salt. (usally this is not necessary as the balachan is salty enough but everyone's taste differs). Add the bunch of kang kong and stir until the vegetable is cooked.

5) Serve immediately with freshly steamed rice.

Chicken and aubergine casserole in a bean paste sauce

Feeling like an all-in-one casserole, and since I finally had my favourite veg, it was either cooking it separately and spending 1/2 pounding a sambal, or throwing it together with the chicken. Guess which option won? :)
Ingredients
1 aubergine, sliced
8 -10 chicken thighlets
1 handful wolfberries (optional)

1 thumb sized ginger, skinned and cut into small slices
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1/2 cup of water

Marinade
2 tbsp spicy bean sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee for mapo toufu)
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tsbp chinese rice wine
1 tbsp sesame seed oil
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar

Method
1) Marinate chicken with the marindate ingredients. Set aside for at least 1 hour. If you can do so overnight, all the better.
2) In a casserole dish, assemble by placing aubergine slices at the bottom and sides of the cassarole, before pouring in the chicken with the marinade. Pour in the water. The water level should not be too high, about 3/4 way up the cassarole otherwise it may bubble over in the oven. You may top up just a bit if necessary, as water helps the chicken and aubergine to cook.
3) Add the garlic and ginger and finish off by placing some aubergine slices on top of the chicken.
4) Bake at 180 deg C for 30 minutes.
5) Serve with steamed rice.

Curry chicken in Pita

Been looking for different staples to try out since I'm a bit sick of bread and rice. So came across wraps and pita bread in Cold Storage and thought, hey why not. It would go very well with my alfafa sprouts in the fridge.

Ingredients

1 packet of pita bread (5 pitas inside)

300g minced chicken

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp tumeric powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tbsp curry powder

pepper to taste

1/4 cup shredded chedder cheese

Alfafa sprouts

Lettuce

Cooking oil

Method

1) Marinate the minced chicken with the soya sauce, tumeric, cumin, curry powder and pepper for at least 20 minutes.

2) Fry the minced chicken and be sure to try to separate it as much as you can, which tends to be harder than with minced pork or minced beef. Once cooked, remove to a plate to cool slightly.

3) Warm up the pita breads by brushing them with oil and then popping them under a grill or on a pan. Turn over halfway.

4) While still hot, cut a slit at the top. Fill it up with the lettuce, alfafa, chedder cheese and chicken.

5) You can flash it under a grill again just to melt the cheese. Otherwise, if you don't like 'warm' lettuce and alfafa, don't fill in the pocket but serve it on the side as a salad.

French Toast 2

After the french toast experience at HK Cafe last week, I decided to resurrect my French Toast experiments. A summary of what I did last time:

Experiment #1

Coat bread with egg wash, and then dip in corn flour and pan fry.

Experiment #2

Coat bread with egg wash, then dip in normal flour and pan fry.Between these 2, the different isn't entirely discernable. With corn flour, the flour amalgamates easily with the egg wash, making the coating slightly crunchy but smooth. With plain flour, the flour acts as a separate coating by itself and you can still see the flour bits on the bread, not so pretty. However, it's most crispy than corn flour, probably because it doesn't amalgamate with the egg.
Experiment #3
Combine the corn flour and normal flour into the egg and beat. There will be lots of little lumps.This was the worst of the lot, didn't make it any more crispy, looked ugly (uneven finish) and just made the bread a bit 'tough' to chew on.

Outcome:

So I think the best compromise is still to coat with corn flour. Pretty and yet slightly crispy.

This time I did something different.

Ingredients

6 slices of bread

4 eggs

3 tsp of cornflour

2 tsp of cinnamon

Method

1) Combined 1 teaspoon of cornflour with 1 egg.

2) Buttered the bread on both sides, using the idea from Bread & Butter pudding

3) Turn the heat up on high otherwise the toast will never brown. While I fried 1 slice (cut diagonally into 2), I let the next one soak in egg.

4) Fry until golden and serve with condensed milk or honey or both! :)

Chinese paella

I'm a cooking programme junkie. Lately, I watched an old episode of Jamie Oliver in Oliver's Twist and watched him as he brought a Brazilian friend home and tried to prepare authentic Brazilian stew - with a Jamie twist, of course. In particular, 1 dish actually reminded me Chinese cooking. He started off with Brazilian sausages (which look surprisingly like lap cheong), fried them off, then poured in some spare ribs for browning and topping off with other liquids. I also watched a recent episode of Kelly Kwong and saw her fry fried rice, which I've not done for a long time simply because I've not had leftover rice for a long time ever since I discovered the microwave rice cooker. Last night, I watched an episode of Chef At Home and saw Michael Smith prepare something involving basmati rice.

Suddenly I felt inspired - I dusted off my old paella pan and this is that I did:

Ingredients

1 packet chicken balls (too lazy to go and debone chicken thigh and cut into cubes, and don't like using chicken breast because it's very dry)

1 carrot, diced

8 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in 1/2 cup of hot water

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 cup of rice, washed and drained

2 lap cheong, cut into circles

oil for frying

Method

1) Pour the oil into a heated paella pan. Fry off the lap cheong. Once the oil has started to melt and ooze out, add the onions and fry until soft. Add the carrots and fry briefly for about a minute.

2) Drain the mushrooms and slice up. Reserve the water from soaking the mushrooms.

3) Add the crushed garlic, rice and mushrooms to the pan, and briefly fry to incorporate.

4) Pour back the water used for soaking mushrooms, and add another 1 and 1/2 cups of water (ie total 1 cup rice = 2 cups water). Pat down ingredients without stirring the rice too much or the grains will break. Bring to boil.

5) Cover and leave on a slow simmer for about 20 mins until the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked and fluffy.

6) Serve immediately in the paella pan.

Scones

Boss made some very nice fresh scones to surprise us one morning. Here's the recipe - looks super easy!

Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Ready in: 45 min

Ingredients (makes 8)
1 3/4 cups (220g) all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons (15g) baking powder
5 tablespoons (70g) unsalted butter
5 tablespoons (60g) white sugar
2/3 cup (160ml) whole milk
1/2 cup (70g) currants
1 egg yolk, beaten

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with baking parchment.
2) Sift flour and baking powder into a medium bowl. Rub butter and sugar into flour to form a fine crumble. Make a well in center, and add milk and currants. Knead gently together, being careful not to over mix. Dough will be sticky.
3) On a generously floured surface, roll out dough to 3/4 inch thickness. Stamp out 2 1/2 inch rounds with a plain pastry cutter. Transfer to prepared pan, and brush tops with egg yolk. Allow to stand for 15 minutes.
4) Bake in preheated oven until risen and lightly golden on top, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool.

Variation: My scones (see picture) were made by substituting the raisins with bits of apple (approx 1/2 a big apple) which resulted in increasing the cooking time by about 3 minutes.

Beef and sweet potato broth

In my new stew craze, I've been experimenting with different slow cooker recipes. Here's the one I tried today which altho didn't turn into a stew, became instead, a nice thick broth. Notice I use the word 'broth' rather than 'soup', because that's exactly what it is.

Ingredients

500g stewing beef, cubed

1/4 cup flour

1 tbsp 5 spice powder

1 tbsp dried basil or sage

1 large white onion, finely diced

1 carrot, cubed

1 sweet potato, cubed into smaller chunks (approx 1 inch cubes. This is impt so that they will actually start to 'melt' and provide the thickness to the broth)

2 handfuls barley

1.5l pork bone stock or chicken stock

2 tsbp rice wine (optional)

2 tbsp worchestershire sauce (optional)

1 handful soyabeans (I put this in a bag so that I could fish it out later as I don't really like eating beans but you can always leave it in)

Oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1) To the flour, add the basil or sage, 5 spice powder and salt and pepper. Mix well. Coat the beef cubes evenly.

2) Add oil to a pan and brown the beef cubes taking care not to crowd the pan. Do a batch at a time until nicely browned on all sides. Remove and drain.

3) Add more oil to the pan and add in the onion, carrots and sweet potato. Briefly fry until onion softens.

4) Pour the vegetable mix into a slow cooker, together with the beef. Add the soyabeans, barley and stock. Pour in the remaining flour used to coat the beef.

5) Once the broth comes to a boil, skim off the foam and any floating oil. Leave to slow cook for at least 2 hours.

6) After 2 hours, pour in the rice wine and worchestershire sauce. It is ready to be served after another 10 minutes of simmering. At this point, check for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

7) Leave it to simmer for up to 4 hours so that the beef becomes really tender, and the sweet potatoes and barley melt to produce a thicker gruel. It can also be cooled down and kept in the fridge after the initial 2 hours, and reheated the next day after skimming off the fat. This leaves time for the tastes to infuse overnight.

Fried calamari rings

Was watching a Korean food programme on squid. Learnt interesting facts: squid has more protein than beef. It is very low in fat. It is a rich source of taurine (anti-ageing) and selenium (anti-oxidant). Squid ink is also good and like black beans and black sesame seeds, is supposed to be good for the heart and asians believe it is good for the kidneys and liver.

Here's a simple recipe which is light and easily prepared.

Ingredients
Squid, prepared and cut into rings. The tentacles can either be whole or cut in half.
Milk
Egg
Flour seasoned with salt, pepper

Method
1) Prepare the squid. Soak in beaten egg with a splosh of milk.
2) Coat with the seasoned flour.
3) Deep fry until golden brown and crispy.
4) Serve with mayo or sweet chilli sauce.

Curry Pork-ettes in a Hurry

After my chicken nuggets, I liked the idea but found chicken breast too dry. I decided to give it a go with pork. The nice thing about pork is that it's slightly fatty, and even if you trim away the obvious fat, the grain of the meat itself still has little bits of fat which keep the meat moist. After cooking, even without oil, you'll see the oil and juices bubbling out and you'll know it's nice and moist inside.

With my trusty new bottle of 5-spice, I decided to try something new. I added curry powder for added kick but accidently ended up pouring half the bottle in. And hey, what did you know, it actually worked out better!

Ingredients (serves 2)

300g pork loin, cut up into nugget-sized chunks. Try to make them as evenly sized as possible so that the cooking time will be the same.

1 egg, beaten

2 tsp mustard

1 tsp salt

1 tsp 5 spice powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp tumeric

5 tbls curry powder

dash of pepper

crackers, crushed (approx 6 or 7 'soda' biscuits or you can use other types of crackers e.g. Ritz, Jacobs, etc)

Method

1) Pour the beaten egg into a shallow plate. Add the salt and mustard and stir well. Place the pork chunks in the egg and stir well. Leave to marinate for at least 10 mins

2) Put the crackers into a ziploc bag and crush using a rolling pin. Add all the rest of the dry ingredients and toss well.

3) Place pork chunk into the ziploc bag. Shake well to coat the pork properly.

4) Arrange on baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.

5) Bake at 200 deg C for 15 mins or until cooked (depending on the size of your pork nuggets)

6) For that added crunch, serve with deep fried curry leaves.

Nigella's Comforting Beef Cassarole

I'm such a fan of beef stews, because I've never ever been able to crack it. Not that I've been trying either, because I usually don't have the time to on weekends and neither do I own a slow cooker.

But here's another promising receipe, which I'm going to add to my list of "one day will try" recipes, and hopefully, that 'one day' will come, some day. Taken from her episode of 'Feasts' entitled 'Kitchen Comforts'.

Ingredients

½ cup Olive Oil
2lb Onions (Roughly Chopped)
1½lb Carrots (Cut On The Diagonal To Give Slanted Oval Slices)
½ cup Flour
Salt & Pepper (Freshly Ground)
1 tablespoon Dried Sage (Leaves)
2 teaspoons Ground Allspice
4½lb Stewing Or Chuck Steaks (Diced)
1 large Orange (Zested And Juiced)
2 cups Stout
2 cups Water
4 Bay Leaves

Method

1. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan or deep casserole, and fry the onions and carrots until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove the softened and oil-glossed vegetables to a bowl, and add the remaining oil to the pan. Put the flour into a large freezer bag along with salt and pepper, sage, and allspice; add the beef pieces to the bag, tossing in the flour, before searing the meat in the pan. Do this in batches, browning the meat a little and removing all of the beef to a large dish as you go.
3. When all the meat is browned and out of the pan, whisk or stir in the orange juice and stout and let it come to the boil. Add the water and then return the meat and vegetables to the pan. Stir in the orange zest and bay leaves, bring to the boil and then turn the stew down to a soft simmer. Cover and cook for 2 1/2 hours.
4. This is best reheated 1 or 2 days after, but if you are serving the stew on the same day, then add another half hour to the cooking time just to make sure the meat is soft, mellow and tender.

Recipe taken from Nigella Lawson's new cookbook FEAST.

Kim Chi Tang

The kim chi from my Korea trip has been hanging around my fridge for close to a month now. Altho I'm told it can last ages (ie months or even years), I'm not inclined to do so because I want to be able to buy new kim chi! Yes, the taste has kinda grown on me. From someone who detests kim chi, I actually found my own batch of kim chi surprisingly refreshing when eaten. Since kim chi is naturally sour (due to the naturally occuring lactobacilli as a result of the fermentation process), there is a salty-sweet tang at the end. Maybe it's just psychological since I made it myself.

Anyhow, my tour guide did mention that you can do lots with kim chi including kim chi fried rice or kim chi soup (which I also tried during the tour). Came across this simple recipe yesterday from a health magazine and thought I'd try it as well as slightly adapt it. This soup brings out the best in the kim chi - it's like Sichuan hot and sour soup, but the chicken stock dilutes the inherent tartness of the kim chi, so this works for people who don't like very sour things - give it a try!

Ingredients
400g kim chi
1l chicken stock (you can use stock cube, I used Maggi Chicken Stock)
8 fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 box of silken toufu
1 thumb sized ginger, sliced thinly
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Soya sauce to taste (usually canned or ready chicken stock is already quite salty, so watch it!)
1 tbsp fish sauce

Method
1) Bring the chicken stock to a boil.
2) Add the kim chi, ginger, garlic and shitake mushrooms and let simmer for about 10-15 mins.
3) Add the soya sauce and fish sauce.
4) Add the toufu.
5) Serve with steamed rice.

Korean-style steamed salmon

Inspired by Korean cooking and Nigella, here's my take on Korean teriyaki-style fish. The same marinade can also be used for beef or chicken and bbq-ed.

Ingredients

2 fillets of salmon

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tsp sherry/chinese rice wine/vodka

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsbp chilli powder

1 thumb-sized ginger, grated or slivered

Method

1) Mix up the marinade and marinate the fish for at least half an hour.

2) Steam fish for 10 mins until cooked, OR

3) Bake in tin foil for 15 mins at 180 deg C.

Kim Chi

Fresh from my Korea trip which includes a kim chi making session, here's how to make kim chi (to the best of my memory!)

Ingredients

1/2 Carrot, thinly sliced
1 tbsp Korean chilli flakes (normal chilli flakes will produce a bitter taste after fermentation, but Korean chilli flakes produces a sweetish flavour)
1/4 head of Cabbage
1 thumb sized ginger, grated
2 stalks green spring onion, finely chopped
ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic
1 big bowl of water (big enough to soak cabbage)
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
Plenty of Salt

Method

1) Leaving the stem of the cabbage intact, separate out each leaf of the cabbage by carefully peeling it off. As you do so, sprinkle each layer liberally with salt and rub it in.
2) Leave cabbage to soak in fresh water for at least 3 to 4 hours, the longer the better.
3) Hang upside down to air dry and set aside.
4) Prepare the 'sauce' by combining the carrot, green onion, garlic and ginger with the fish sauce, chilli flakes, sugar and 1 tsp of salt (not too much as the fish sauce is salty enough)
5) Spread out all the leaves and hold them in your left hand, largest leaf-side down. Peel off the largest leaf and spread it on the chopping board. Smear some of the sauce onto the leave, making sure to cover the entire leaf. Proceed on with the next largest leaf until you have finished all the leaves.
6) Fold in half and use the largest leaf to encircle the bundle. Set aside to ferment, putting in the fridge only overnight. It will be read to eat the next morning.

Cornflake-crusted Chicken Nuggets

Adapted from Micheal Smith's "Chef at Home"'s Cornflake-crusted Chicken Breasts and Nigella's Chicken Nuggets, this recipe helped me use up my leftover cornflakes.

Ingredients
2-3 cups cornflakes
2 chicken breasts, snipped into 8 nugget-sized pieces
1 cup yoghurt
salt and pepper for seasoning
1 tsp mustard

Method
1) Snip the chicken breasts into roughly 8 pieces using a kitchen scissors. Bash it flat using the back of a cleaver or rolling pin to ensure that the thickness of each nugget is roughly about the same. This will help in ensure that all the pieces are evenly cooked.

2) Marinade in the yoghurt, salt and pepper and mustard overnight.
3) Drain off excess yoghurt. In a bag, crush up the cornflakes using a rolling pin.
4) Drop in each nugget and ensure well coated.
5) On a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper, bake at 220 deg C for 10 mins or until golden brown.

Nigella's Cheesecakelets

From Nigella's Feasts, Epi Breakfast All hours, from Food Network

Serving suggestion: (makes 15 cakelets)
2 cups strawberries, chopped into quarters
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar
3 eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon best-quality vanilla extract
1 cup cottage cheese
1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1) Put the strawberries into a bowl and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and sugar. Stir before covering with plastic wrap and leaving to steep while you make the cheesecakelets.
2) Mix the egg yolks with the sugar, beating well. Add the vanilla, cottage cheese, and flour.
3) Then, in another bowl, whisk the whites until frothy with a hand whisk and fold into the cottage cheese mixture.
4) Heat a smooth griddle or nonstick skillet and dollop the batter onto it make cakelets of about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Each cheesecakelet will take a minute or so to firm up underneath, then you should flip it and cook the other side, and remove to a warmed plate when ready.
5) Turn the strawberries in the ruby syrup they've made and squish some pieces with a fork at the same time.
6) Serve with the hot cheesecakelets.

Cheat's Potato Soup

I accidently stumbled across this recipe when I was using an instant mash potato mix and ended up with waaaay too much water. It resulted in a soupy potato base, which can serve as the base for a lot of quick and easy soups!

Start with twice or 3 times the recommended amount of water stated on the instructions of the instant mash packet (u can use water, milk or be totally decadent and use double cream!)

Corn and potato soup
Add several tblsp canned corn.

Onion and potato soup
Saute 1/2 chopped white onion until it carameralises and add to the soup base.

Leek and potato soup
Saute 1 chopped leek slowly and add to soup base.

Bacon and potato soup
Fry chopped bacon until crispy and add to potato soup.

In all instances, always add salt and pepper to taste.

The possibilities are endless and it depends on how hardworking (ie how much frying/sauteing/cooking) you want to be or how lazy (just add milk or cream) you want to be!

Crispy spare ribs

I have been trying to find a good recipe for crispy but baked spare ribs and watching some of the Nigella programmes gave me an inspiration.

I used back my usual char siew sauce recipe, but tweaked it a bit. I added in cinnamon and cumin, which are Morrocon influences, seem to go well with this predominantly Chinese dish.

Both the cinnamon and cumin give a kind of sweetness to it and also a certain earthy heat. But avoid putting too much, especially cumin, which are very potent spices and could easily overpower everything else.

Ingredients

350g spare ribs

1 tbls oyster sauce

1 tbls dark soya sauce

1 tbls light soya sauce

1 tbls chinese rice wine

1 tbls sesame seed oil

1 tbls sugar

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp cinnamon

corn flour for coating

Method

1) Pour the spare ribs into a bowl with all the ingredients for marinading. Marinade overnight if possible, or at least for 3 hours in the fridge.

2) Take the spare ribs out of the marinade and squeeze each rib dry to get rid of all excess liquid. Set aside the marinade. This will be used as the sauce later.

3) In a baking tray, oil the bottom of the tray. Put in the oven (set at 180 C) to warm up the oil.

4) Coat each spare rib with corn flour. Ensure proper thorough coating all over. Put straight into the hot oil.

5) Put back into the oven and bake at 180C for 30-40 mins or so (depending on how thick the meat and bone are. The thicker, the longer!) Turn halfway through the cooking time and brush over a thin layer of oil.

6) At the last 5 minutes, turn up the heat to 200C to crisp the outside.

7) For the sauce, simmer on low heat to reduce until thick and syrupy. Add a bit of water to dilute if too salty. This can be the dipping sauce or drizzled on top.

7) Serve with oven baked vegs (I laid these at the bottom of the pan) or steamed rice, or both!

Almond Croccante

As seen in David Rocco's Dolce Vita, here's a simple recipe for a sweet that he used for trick or treatin' during Halloween.

Ingredients:
4 cups almonds
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup water (120ml)

Directions:
1) In a saucepan, add sugar and cook on high heat. Continue to stir until sugar begins to sweat and liquefy. Add a bit of water to help if necessary. Continue to cook until sugar turns into a deep rich brown colour.
2) Add almonds and mix well. Cook for a few minutes, making sure your almonds are fully coated.

3) Remove from heat and quickly spread the hot almond/sugar mixture on a cookie sheet to the desired thickness.
4) Let cool for a half an hour before breaking it into smaller pieces.

Cornflake cookies

Here is the traditional recipe for cornflake cookies. Very easy to do and very crunchy! Courtesy of a very good old friend and a very good cook who started me out on all the basics of cooking, Cynthia!

Ingredients
350g self raising flour
1pc butter (250g)
7oz fine sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 box cornflakes, use rolling pin to crush half ,and reserve half for coating

Method
1) Beat butter and sugar with mixer till soft.
2) Add 1 egg.
3) Fold in flour slowly.
4) Add the crushed cornflakes.
5) Scoop one teaspoon of the above and roll on the remianing cornflakes.
6) Place the cookies in the small paper cup for baking.
7) Bake at 130 C for approx 30-45 min and ensure that inside and outside of cookies are cooked.

Starch

Got this from Sunday's Taste section today. Something I've been wondering for a long time and presto, here's the answer!

Q: I find that when you use corn flour to thicken a dish it becomes watery after a while. Some suggest the use of sweet potato flour, especially if you need to thicken lor mee. May I know what type of flour I shoudl use as a common thickener?

A (Chris Tan): The pure starches commonly used for thickening in Asia have different properties, and each does different things well.

Corn starch is popular as it thickens quickly and efficiently. However, corn starch-thickened sauces are cloudy and, if over-stirred or over-cooked, become watery, as you've noticed. Hence, corn starch is most ideal for dishes that are quickly cooked and promptly served.

Flavour-wise, it's also the most compatible thickener for dairy-based sauces and soupls.

Potato starch and sweet potato starch make clear, beautifully glossy sauces that start out very thick, but thin out as simmering continues. They are good for lor mee, mee rebus and other gravies that need to be creamy-smooth but are not boiled at length.

Arrowroot starch is similar to corn starch, but is less cloudy and more stable. It's also less concentrated, so you need slightly more of it. Arrowroot-thickened sauces do not become gluey or jelly-like as they cook. Unlike other starches, arrowroot isn't affected by acidic ingredients, so it's great for dishes like hot and sour soup, or fruit pie fillingss. It doesn't mix well with diary products though.

Tapioca (cassava) starch has the most neutral flavour of all, suitable for both sweet and savoury dishes. It's wonderful for fruit pie fillings or bright, shiny fruit tart glazes. Cold soups and sauces are a no-no though, as tapioca yeilds stringy, gel-like consistencies when cool.

Water chestnut starch is expensive and has a slight but distinctive flavour. however, it gives sauces a lovely shine and less heavy texture than corn strach. It's often gritty so pulse it in a food processor to break it up. You have to stir it energetically to dissolve it in water.

Cornflake and coconut biscuits

Thanks to Mag's recipe for Anzac biscuits, I'd thought I'd modify it a bit considering I don't really like oats and don't want to have a big bag of it hanging around after I've done baking! I leant the hard way about parchment paper - you still have to oil it otherwise it will still get stuck to the biscuits! To be extra kiasu, I recommend dusting on some flour on top as well.

Ingredients

3 cups cornflakes, crushed (put it into a ziploc and use a rolling pin to bash it up...great for working out frustration!)

1 cup plain flour (150g)

1 cup packed brown sugar (200g)

1/2 cup dessicated coconut (45g)

125g butter

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp water

1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1) Combine the dry ingredients (cornflakes, sugar, flour and coconut) well in a big mixing bowl.

2) Combine the wet ingredients by melting the butter in a microwave bowl with sugar, water, and vanilla. Once the butter has melted, stir in the bicarb.

3) Pour the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix well.

4) Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Oil/butter the parchment paper well and dust on a thin layer of flour. Shake off excess.

5) Use a spoon to form rounded tsp of the mixture, and put them approx 5 cm apart. I used my hands to really crush and pack the mixture together into a tight ball, patting it down only slightly to get the flat biscuit shape. If it's too dry, add a bit more water or use milk.

6) Bake in a 160 degree oven for approx 15 to 20 mins until firm to the touch.

Fishball soup

This is a simple dish but honestly, do you know how hard it is to make the soup base? Most hawker stalls I go to, the soup ends up tasting like dishwater - the 'soup' is literally the stuff they use to 'wash' the noodles in before serving it in your bowl, with lots of MSG and salt added. Blech.

Thanks to my new cube mate and mother of a toddler, she cued me in on the use of yellow soya beans and ikan bilis. I've often seen soya beans end up in my niang dou fu so her idea can't be too far wrong! I've added my own ginger and other stuff and wow - a dark earthy MSG-tasting soup without any MSG!

Ingredients (feeds 2)

For stock

1.5l water

3 handfuls of soya beans

3 handful peanuts

2 handfuls of ikan bilis (the ones with heads on)

1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced

1 tbsp chinese rice wine
1 star anise

salt to taste

For fishball soup
1 pkt fishballs
3 tbsp dong chai
1 bunch tang-o

Method1) Put in the stock ingredients to boil for 1 to 1.5 hours. Add salt and pepper approx 5 min near the end.
2) Drain the stock (this step is very important, unless u like eating all that stuff. This step affects the enjoyment of the soup!)
3) Put in the fishbals and dong chai and boil briefly until the fish balls float.
4) Before serving, throw in the tang-o. The heat will slightly wilt the vegetable.
5) This can be served with plain steamed rice, or add noodles(I like using dong fen or bee hoon) at this point

Nigella's Triple Chocolate Brownies

I've always been looking around for the right brownie recipe - my brownies are nice right after baking but tend to get hard as the days go by, as hard as biscuits! I had this prefect recipe off the Hershey cocoa tin years ago but haven't been able to find it since. I'm told the secret to the gooey-ness really lies in sour cream.

Anyhow this look like another good recipe to try. Thought I'd copy and paste it here before it disappears from cyberspace forever.

Recipe courtesy Nigella Lawson
Show:
Nigella Feasts
Episode:
Chocolate Heaven

Ingredients
3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces best-quality bittersweet chocolate
6 eggs 1 3/4 cups superfine sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup white chocolate buttons, chips, or morsels
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate buttons, chips or morsels
Approximately 2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar, for garnish
Special equipment: Baking tin (approximately 11 1/4 inches by 9 inches by 2 inches), sides and base lined with baking parchment.

Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
1) Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in a large heavy based pan over a low heat.
2) In a bowl or large measuring jug, beat the eggs together with the superfine sugar and vanilla extract.
3) Allow the chocolate mixture to cool a little, then add the egg and sugar mixture and beat well. 4) Fold in the flour and salt. Then stir in the white chocolate buttons or chips, and the semisweet chocolate buttons or chips.
5) Beat to combine then scrape and pour the brownie mixture into the prepared tin.
6) Bake for about 25 minutes. You can see when the brownies are ready because the top dries to a slightly paler brown speckle, while the middle remains dark, dense and gooey. Even with such a big batch you do need to keep checking on it: the difference between gooey brownies and dry ones is only a few minutes. Remember, too, that they will continue to cook as they cool.
7) To serve, cut into squares while still warm and pile up on a large plate, sprinkling with confectioners' sugar pushed with a teaspoon through a small sieve.

Nigella's Quadraple Chocolate Loaf Cake

Saw this super duper easy and yet superbly sinful choco cake recipe recently. Done just the way I like it - using a food processor! More of Nigella's chocolate recipes can be found in her episode "Chocolate Heaven".
Cake:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks soft unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon good-quality vanilla extract
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or morsels

Syrup:
1 teaspoon cocoa
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

1-ounce dark chocolate (from a thick bar if possible), cut into splinters of varying thickness, for garnish

Special equipment: 2-pound loaf tin (approximately 9 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 3 inches deep), lined with greased foil, pressed into the corners and with some overhang at the top. Alternatively, substitute a silicon loaf tin, no foil lining necessary.

Method

1) Take whatever you need out of the refrigerator so that all ingredients can come room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, putting in a baking sheet as you do so.

2) Put the flour, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream into the processor and blitz until a smooth, satiny brown batter. Scrape down with a rubber spatula and process again while pouring the boiling water down the funnel. Switch it off, then remove the lid and the well-scraped double-bladed knife and, still using your rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips or morsels.

3) Scrape and pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and put into the oven, cooking for about 1 hour. When ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle and a cake-tester will pretty well come out clean.

4) Not long before the cake is due out of the oven (when it has had about 45 to 50 minutes), put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar into a small saucepan and boil for about 5 minutes, to give a thick syrup.

5) Take the cake out of the oven and sit it on a cooling rack, still in the tin, and pierce here and there with a cake tester. Pour the syrup over the cake.

6) Let the cake become completely cold and then slip out of its tin, removing the foil as you do so. Sit on an oblong or other plate. Sprinkle the chocolate splinters over the top of the sticky surface of the cake

Steamed ginger minced pork 'biscuit'

Inspired by the cantonese favourite, 'ham yu jing (or jian depending on fried or steamed) yok bang', I was merrily preparing this dish when I realised, alamak, no more of the key ingredient, salted fish! :O And then I suddenly remembered my frozen ginger sitting in my freezer. I absolutely adore ginger so what the heck... To make it softer (more like chawamushi, you can add more water)
Ingredients (makes 2 servings)
150g pork mince
1 thumb sized ginger, skin removed and sliced into thin slivers
1 tbls light soya sauce
1 tbls chinese rice wine
2 dashes sesame seed oil
2 eggs
2 tbls water

Method
1) Add every thing together (except the egg and water) and mix well.
2) Beat in the egg.
3) Add in the water.
4) Transfer into 2 bowls suitable for steaming.
5) Steam until it sets (about 10 to 15 mins). I used a microwave by putting both bowls on top of a microwave steaming tray.
6) (optional) Garnish with spring onions.

Seafood Mui Fan

I remember when I was young, we would go to this food court type restaurant in the basement of the old Orchard Point on Sundays. Now it's gone, after the reno. The food wasn't great, but it was tasty, and served old favourites like hor fun, mui fan, etc.

Mui fan is one of my favourite childhood dishes. It's actually v easy to make, once you got the sauce down pat. And from there, it's easy to move on to hor fun (altho frying the kway teow in dark sauce is a pain) and even crispy noodles. People always told me it would be easy but I still don;'t reckon so, but this is a pretty decent attempt.

Ingredients (serves 4)
150g squid, cleaned and sliced into rings
150g shelled and deveined prawns
1 pkt fishballs
half a can of canned baby corn, drained and sliced
1 baby chinese lettuce (or chinese cabbage can also be used), sliced
1 tomato, diced
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbl oyster sauce
1 tbl Maggi concentrated chicken stock
1 tbl chinese rice wine
2 cups water
2 tbl cornstarch, as thickener

Method
1) In a pot, pour in the water, fishballs, and vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes.
2) Add the seasoning. Add the seafood and cook for no more than 30 seconds.
3) Bring to a boil. Drizzle in the beaten egg to achieve the 'egg drop' effect.
4) Add the cornstarch to a bit of water, and when the soup is boiling, pour into the pot and stir.
5) Serve immediately on top of steamed rice. You can also serve on top of noodles.