Funkiemummie's Recipes

I fish, I cook, I eat

2014-03-21T16:06:00.003+08:00

Finally, the long awaited rain has settled on our little sunny island. Praise God for the showers which finally broke a two month dry spell. It has been raining every day this week. It couldn't come at a better time than when the kids are having a one-week March holiday break. It's nice, cool and less hazy.

The funny thing about being in sunny island Singapore is while some parts of the island is drenched, another part is bright and sunny. This March holiday, my son wanted to go fishing. So we headed down to Bedok Jetty yesterday early in the morning. While there was warning of thundery showers in the late afternoon, the sun was relentlessly beating down on East Coast beach which made it perfect for fishing.

I haven't fished for over 2 years so our fishing rods were dusty and our skills were rusty. But nevertheless armed with sunblock, hats, sandwiches and reels, we parked ourselves three-quarter way down the 250m jetty.

Here's Gabriel in the hot sun in his cool anime hat which doubled up as a fishing hat.

We fished for tamban - a local name for a species of herring, about 10 to 15 cm in length. We spent the morning under the blazing sun and we were quite happy with our catch. Yeah! It was a great feeling fishing again. We would have continued except we were getting fried under the noon sun.

So fresh, you can taste the sea! That's the good thing about cooking what you've caught that day. Here's a very simple recipe for this simply delightful fish. Here's a closer look.

Ingredients

- Tamban fish (fresh!)
- Corn flour
- Salt
- Oil

That's it!!!!

Method

- Clean and gut fish
- Pat dry
- Sprinkle with salt and lightly coat with corn flour
- Heat enough oil for deep frying
- Fry fish

It tastes like what you would get with the fish in nasi lemak. Alternatively, you can also add some curry powder to coat the fish - something my mom likes to do. It's a simple easy dish to cook and it tastes all the better when you know you've caught it fresh on that day!

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galiliee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fisherman. "Come follow me," Jesus say, "and I will send you out to fish for people." At once they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-20)

Of Apple and Snow Pear Soup and American Ginseng

2014-02-10T20:21:00.000+08:00

Happy Lunar New Year to all friends around the world! May you be filled with the God's peace and the assurance of his promises in this new year ahead!

Sorry this took so long, but this is the recipe I have promised since my last post about a Chinese tonic soup I cooked with my new ceramic pot! Due to the excitement of actually making Chinese tonic soup for the first time, I totally forgot to take a picture of a bowl of the soup AFTER I prepared it. So here's a picture from my recipe book called "Miraculous Soups" - the bilingual edition by Wu JiLin which I bought from Popular Bookshop.

This soup is interesting because it's called "American Ginseng Soup with Apple and Snow Pear. According to my recipe book, it clears heat, moistens lungs, stops cough and expels phlegm.

I tried the soup simply to see how an apple and snow pear soup would turn out, and I must say, it turned out pretty well.

Apple? We all know what that is. Snow Pear? That's actually "Li" or Chinese pear. The ones with the brown textured skin.

Before we carry on, if you need to understand how much 1 mace and 1 tael is (that how Chinese herbs are measured), I have the explained how that is measured in grams in my previous post. Here's the link "Of Chinese herbs and my new ceramic pot".

Ingredients

- 3-4 apples
- 2 snow pears
- 300g of lean meat (I used lean pork)

herbal ingredients

- 5 maces (approx 18.9g) American ginseng (top of the plate. These come in slices - at least the ones I bought from the Chinese herbal shop. Because the taste can be quite strong, I used only 3 maces, otherwise my kids were not too keen on drinking such a strong tonic)

chuan bei

- 1 mace (approx 3.8g) fritillaria bulb (the little round white bulbs on the right of the plate) or what is known in Mandarin as Chuan bei 川貝

dried figs

- 8 dried figs (right of the plate) 无花果 wu hua guo

sweet and bitter almond

- 3 maces (approx 11.3g) of sweet almond (bottom of the plate) 南杏 nan xing
- 2 maces (approx 7.6g) bitter almond (bottom of the plate) 北杏 bei xing

honey dates

- 3-4 honey dates (centre of the plate) 蜜枣 mi zao
- salt to taste

Method

1. Rinse fruits and cut them into pieces

2. Scald entire piece of lean meat in boiling water for 5 minutes

3. Rinse all the other herbs and set aside

4. Place all the ingredient into the pot with 3000ml of water. Bring to boil over high heat. Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer for 3 hours.

5. Turn of the heat and season with salt.

And that's it. It's that simple. The soup turned out surprisingly pleasant because of the apple, the snow pear and the honey dates. It's slightly sweet and yet slightly herbal (largely because of the ginseng). So if you're not too keen on a very herbal taste, you can use less ginseng.

The hard part for me what trying to gather all the required ingredients because I wasn't sure what some of them looked it and how to purchase the ones with better quality. I guess there's always a start to everything, right? My best bet was to bring the list of ingredient straight to the Chinese herbal shop. Much better if you know the Chinese names to the herbs.

New soup for a new year! Enjoy! I'm tried several more recipes from this book and will be uploading them soon! Till then God bless!

Of Chinese herbs and my new ceramic pot

2013-11-23T21:42:00.001+08:00

It's been awhile since I last posted a recipe ... I'm still messing around the kitchen when I can, but I have admittedly been pretty tied up with work this year.

It's been a tough year - in terms of workload and seeing some friends and colleagues losing their battles to cancer. But in it all, I'm reminded of God's purpose for all of us - no matter how long or short our time here on earth is, we need to be that salt and light, just as Jesus has taught us to be.

There is a song called "Tapestry" which I learned some 20 years back and it goes;

I am thread in the tapestry
I have the Master's hand on me
And then He weaves me carefully
Making textures as He goes

Each of us part of His great design
You've got your part and I've got mine
All of our lives are inter-twined
As the fabric starts to grow

Through thick and thin
The Master weaves us in
Young and old, we are the colours of the rainbow, our lives are
Short and long
But together we hold strong
In this everlasting tapestry

So press on and do not be discouraged! For each day that the Good Lord has given us, we must continue to fulfill the Great commission he has required of us!

RIP my friends David, Cynthia and Daphne. I'm blessed to have known you all.

Meanwhile for the living, keep the good faith and run the good race! And to good health, I've been doing some research on healthy Chinese herbal soups.

I recently came across a book in Popular Book Shop on healthy Chinese soup recipes and found it extremely useful when it came to understanding the uses of some of the traditional Chinese herbs in soups. My understanding of Chinese herbs and medicine is not even near good, but this bilingual book has greatly helped me in my Chinese herbal education 101. So if you're as lost as I am, I ask that you begin this journey with me :-).

For starters, I bought myself a ceramic pot just for brewing soup from NTUC finest at Bukit Timah, costs me about S$25. I'm pretty sure you can find it at any department store like Tangs or in a Chinatown near you.

According to this book called "Miraculous Soup" by Wu JiLin, a ceramic pot which gives the soup a different taste and texture compared to cooking it in a metal pot. That is because ceramic produces "far-infrared rays, which help release the goodness of the ingredients, resulting in a fresh, sweet soup". It is said to enhance the effects of the herbs and ingredients in the pot. A clay pot will do just as well.

Then I proceeded to the Chinese Medical shop for a quick lesson in Chinese herbs. I was so glad the sales assistant could explain the Chinese herbs in English as well as Mandarin (I only managed with my fractured Mandarin and I'm glad the young man was ever so patient with me).

Chinese herbs are measured differently, but it can be weighted in grams as well.

一两（yi1 liang3) is 1 tael which is approximately 37.5g
一线（yi1 xian4) is 1 mace which is approximately 3.75g
十线＝一两 which means 10 maces equals 1 tael

So Chinese herbs are measured this way, by maces and taels. I bought my herbs by the tael, because the recipes require them in these measurements.

In my next fews blogs, I will share recipes I've tried with Chinese herbs from the soup book I mentioned earlier. The recipes are easy to follow and all you need is just to get hold of the Chinese herbs and a good ceramic or clay pot, and that's it!

Coming up next, Apple and Snow Pear soup with American Ginseng.

Till then, stay tuned!

Of prawning and oven-baked prawns

2012-08-20T14:18:00.001+08:00

Recently, my husband and I chanced upon a rather interesting and relaxing pastime - PRAWNING. We were cruising up North along Yishun when we passed this place called the Bottle Tree which had a little pond where people sat around, PRAWNING.

On our very first try we caught 9 big prawns in the 1st hour! We were very blessed to have a very kind and friendly16 year-old experienced "prawner" who guided us and gave us tips on how to fish for prawns. He taught us to keep our eyes on the float and to flick our wrist when there is a bite. In fact, he sat with us for the entire hour just to make sure we caught something. God does send angels in all forms.

We were so "hooked" (pardon the pun) that we decided to bring the kids along the next time. Of course in all forms of fishing (or prawning in this case), there will be disappointments. You can catch some and you don't catch some. Such is life too. Sometimes we think we're on the right track, but things just don't work out the way we want to. We get disappointed. But in Isaiah 55:8-9 it says;

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declared the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

And we rest assured that God is in control. He's the BOSS! He's in charge! In Jeremiah 29:11 it says

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

But to our family prawning trip. We spent an hour at the Village@Jurong Hill prawning this morning and we caught 2 huge prawns and a couple more.

My girl with her first catch!

A regular prawner there gave us 2 more. So we ended up with 6!

The kids with their catch

It's not much to shout about, but nevertheless we were grateful for them! My daughter caught 3 on her own and she somehow hooked the biggest one! Hooray! Not bad for a first timer. My son, was a tad disappointed, but he's all geared up to prawn more!

Skewered prawns - washed and had the feelers trimmed

Here's how I cooked them.

Ingredients

- PRAWNS!!!

- chopped garlic

- Oil

Marinating prawns with oil and garlic

Method

- Skewer the prawns to straighten them out

- Marinate simply with oil and garlic

- Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius (or 392 degree Fahrenheit)

Into the oven they go

My kitchen was filled the mouth-watering baked prawn aroma, the same as if you were to put it on a grill. We had it for lunch with a simple cut red chill and soya sauce dip. It was delicious! So fresh, fragrant and succulent. If you like more baked seafood recipes, you can check them out here; Salmon and Red Snapper. Till the next blog, God bless you all!

Our lunch!

Of beef, radish and carrot soup

2012-07-16T21:19:00.000+08:00

Recently my niece sent me a video of her one-year-old enjoying his new found freedom - walking! That's one small step for him, a big leap for his confidence and a giant separation anxiety for mommy! Have legs and walk. Before you know it, he'll be leaping over the tallest buildings, conquering the highest mountains and diving into the deepest oceans . So drama ... my daughter would say. I grin.

Our kids will grow up and we will have to learn to let go and TRUST. How? Trust them to God and pray that we've taught them about God and how to trust God to make the right decisions - themselves.

Bottom line is - we can never protect them enough from the temptations of the world. We can't be there all the time. But its our duty to guide them so that they will make the right choices. God gave us the freedom of choice, and we need to make those choices wisely.

TRUST this age-old saying, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

And talking about choices - two Saturdays ago, I just felt like making a hearty soup for dinner. It was between a good old chicken soup or beef soup. I went for the beef. So I dug out my slow cooker to cook this very simple-to-prepare, hearty beefy root veggie soup.

Ingredients

500g of beef (I used tender chuck)
1 radish
2 carrots
3-4 star anise
1/2 teaspoon of mixed herbs
1 tablespoon of Marmite
salt and a dash of sugar for taste

Method

Cut the tender chuck, radish and carrots into big pieces
Place them into a slow cooker
Add spices
Fill 3/4 of slow cooker with water
Add Marmite and salt to taste. (I also added a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar)
Cook over 5 hours stirring occasionally

You can also cook this over the stove if you don't have a slow cooker. Boil for an hour or till beef is tender. I prefer the slow cooker because I can just leave the cooker to do the job. The beef is so soft and tender, the radish and the carrots are soft but not mushy. It's a complete meal with just a humble bowl of rice.

Enjoy and till the next post, God bless!

Fun with Cocoa Icing, Sugar Flakes and Silver Pearls decorations

2012-06-23T22:11:00.003+08:00

June has come and is going soon. It's been a hot and humid month. Temperatures are rising everywhere. It's 28 degrees Celsius now (82 degree Fahrenheit for those who are making the conversion) and it's 9.30pm, yes at night.

So we perspire a little and grumble a little about the heat and the sun. But that's nothing compared to if you come home at the end of the day after work and temperatures are soaring at home.

What do I mean? Recently I heard about a friend who had much trouble at home and didn't feel like going home after work. At the end of day, it doesn't really matter if you have the most beautiful house on the block, or the most expensive piece of property in the best estate. It matters if you have peace in your home. If people respect one another and learn how to love and understand one another, your house becomes your home, a place you want to find comfort in everyday.

"Better a dry crust with peace and quiet, than a house full of feasting with strife," says Proverbs 17:1

June is also the holiday month and my kids are having been raising temperatures at home as well. This time - baking. My daughter, baked an English Tea Cake (ready cake-mix) and decided to make a cocoa icing and then the decorations.

So we found a cocoa icing recipe in my collection of recipes and it's a simple but most yummy icing (for those with a sweet tooth - highly recommended)

Ingredients
100g butter
6 oz icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon hot water

Method
1. Cream butter and icing sugar with egg beater
2. Dissolve cocoa powder in hot water
3. Once the butter and icing sugar mixture is creamy, add cocoa mixture and beat until icing turns light brown.

We also found some colorful sugar flakes and silver sugar pearls in the dry store. So here's the artist at work with her master piece.

We had it for dessert that night. With tummies full, we had a peaceful and quiet sleep. Simple food, simple pleasures.

And talking about cakes, if you're in the mood for some cheesecake, you can check our my cheesecake recipe here which I wrote in an earlier blog.

Till the next blog, may God's peace be with you and I pray that your homes will be filled with the love of Jesus!

Beer-battered fish and prawns

2012-05-07T22:40:00.000+08:00

To date, I have uploaded several fish recipes even though I don't quite fancy eating fish. It's a good thing because I'm finding fun ways to cook fish that tickle my taste buds. This latest recipe I promise is good. My taste buds totally approve. Confirm, double confirm!

I came back from a business trip in New York recently and had a couple of days to rest at home before going back to the grind (as my boss puts it). I was home checking out Food Network Asia (one of my favorite channels) and I chanced upon Robin Miller and this recipe. She cooked it with 4 slabs of fish fillet (I don't remember what fish she used) and I decided to try it using smaller slices of halibut instead, PLUS, I also used prawns (big grey prawns) and tweaked the recipe slightly to suit my taste. It turned out delicious. I could open a fish and chips (and prawns) outlet with this. I'm serious. The recipe also comes with an exotic Mandarin orange sambal dip! This is the first time I have tried this very unusual yet sweet and spicy dip that is perfect with the fish and prawns. I highly recommend this.

What is golden brown and crispy ... fish could never taste better!

Ingredients

10 to 12 slices of halibut (about 1-2 inches wide and 6-7 inches long)
8 to 10 big grey prawns
About 3 to 4 cups of plain flour separated into 2 parts
1 can of beer (I used Stella Artois)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 egg beaten
Italian mixed herbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil (I used Rice Oil)

Mandarin orange dip ingredients

1 can of drained Mandarin orange
2 tablespoons of sambal belacan (I used Glory Sambal Belacan). Alternatively, you can use curry paste.
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Chopped Chinese parsley

Method

(Let's prepare the fish and prawns)

Sprinkle salt, pepper and Italian herbs on both sides of fish slices and prawns.
Heat oil in a deep wok - enough for deep frying.
Use 2 separate containers for this. In 1 container, add 1-part of the flour as mentioned in the ingredients. In the other container, whisk the other part of flour with 1 teaspoon of salt, 3/4 to 1 can of beer, 1 beaten egg and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Dip fish first into plain flour. Make sure to dust off the excess flour.

Dip floured-fish into batter mixture and coat evenly.
Deep fry fish until golden brown on each side (it took about 3-5 minutes on each side)
Repeat the same with prawns (take note that the prawns cook faster)
Remove and drain in a plate lined with kitchen tower to soak up the excess oil before serving.

(Let's prepare the Mandarin orange sambal dip)

Drain juice from can of Mandarin orange - discard.
Add sambal belacan, lemon juice and chopped Chinese parsley to drained Mandarin orange and mix well.

Serve as a dip

There you have it. A simple-to-do recipe which turned out surprising fabulous! The fish and prawns fritters were crispy and tasty. I serve them with brown rice and salad on the side and the must-have sweet & spicy Mandarin orange sambal dip! You can actually taste the alcohol in the batter, but it isn't overwhelming, just a hint which is what I really enjoyed. Have a go at it and let me know how it turns out for you! Enjoy and God bless! Till next time, happy cooking!

Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8)

Peppercorn-baked Salmon

2012-04-08T21:49:00.001+08:00

Happy Easter! This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it! He is risen!

Of late I have picked up a couple of verses in my daily reading which has to do with battles. Are you combat-fit? Well I guess if you work full-time and manage a household at the same time, you wear multiple hats as a daughter, wife, mother, employee, you should be combat-fight, right? Yes Mdm!

Now here's one verse in particular that stood out. Check this out.

"Better a patient man than a warrior, one who controls his temper than one who takes a city." Proverbs 16:32

Patience my friend, patience ... a virtue that is more valued than being a warrior. Better will you be if you can control your temper than if you should conquer a city. That is an amazing analogy! How many times have we lost our patience over the kids who just won't take no for an answer? How many times have we fret about things that aren't going to make a dent in the world?

Well honestly, there are bigger problems in the world that are worth our concern than our petty little confrontations. Is it worth it getting all flustered but gaining the upper hand OR it is worth it when you ask God for strength to be patient and rein in your temper? You might not win every battle in life, but that doesn't make you a loser. Count the cost, my friends, and choose your battles. You don't always have to have to last word to be the victor. Here's another wise saying, "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord." Proverbs 21:31. You will be more of a blessing, more of a positive impact, more of a kinder difference if you have patience than if you lost your cool. Food for thought.

And now, a healthy food to calm your souls. Salmon is one of my favorite fish to eat. For the record ... again, I don't really enjoy fish. But this fish, I thoroughly enjoy. This is, yes another, very simple to cook (bake actually) healthy fish dish that you can do in a jiffy. Ready? Here we go.

Ingredients

- Salmon fillet, cut into 1 1/2 inches thick
- Peppercorn seasoning

- salt
- mixed herbs
- 1/2 to 1 cup lemon juice
- olive oil
- 2 potatoes
- 1/2 small pumpkin

Method

- Place pieces of salmon into a baking tray lined with aluminum foil

- Pour lemon juice over the pieces

- Sprinkle salt, peppercorn seasoning and mixed herbs over the top of the pieces

- Drip olive oil over the pieces

- Add potatoes and pumpkin pieces by the sides and season with salt and sugar.

- Bake in oven at 200 degree Celsius for 20 mins

You can serve this with salad by the sides. Thoroughly enjoy this. Let me know how it turns out. Till next time, God bless!

Valentine's Day Special - Chocolate ganache Macaroons

2012-02-13T23:19:00.000+08:00

I was going through my daughter's bible reading today and came across Proverbs 14:30.

It reads "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."

God really has a way of putting things into perspective.

What matters to the heart will manifest in the flesh. If your heart isn't at peace, neither will your body be. Just think of people you know who are unhappy and carry unforgiveness in their hearts and many a times, they fall sick as a result it. Envy and jealousy corrupt not just our hearts, but will wreak our bodies as well - rots the bones ... literally.

Envy, discontentment, jealousy should be kicked out of the door! Let's keep it real here. We will get nowhere and do no-good to ourselves by harping on things that will eventually kill us! So which "tent" do you belong? The content or discontent. I'd rather be happy with little than worry with much.

Just keeping it simply - for Valentine's Day. What matters to the heart, matters to the body!

And keeping it simple, I have embarked into making the humble basic macaroons to amuse my kids just a couple of weeks ago.

The recipe I tried was simple, very sweet (be warned) but it took some effort and time because of the sifting. So you have to set aside some time to sift the ingredients. I made a chocolate ganache for the filling, but you can always just put raspberry jam if you want it simple.

Here's what you need. But let's start with the chocolate ganache.

Chocolate ganache

Ingredients
- 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (you can use bittersweet chocolate as well)
- 1 cup of heavy cream (whipping cream)

Method
- Break the chocolate into pieces and place them into a metal bowl
- Heat cream in a separate pan to a boil
- Pour cream over chocolate
- Whisk until smooth
- Allow it to cool then whisk until light and fluffy

Macaroons

Ingredients
- 3/4 cup of confectioners' sugar
- 3/4 cup of ground almond
- 2 large egg whites at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
- 2 tablespoons of fine sugar

Method
- Using a food processor, pulse the confectioners' sugar and ground almond together.
- This is the tedious part - sift mixture twice

- Set oven at 190 degrees Celsius
- Whisk egg white with a egg beater until it turns foamy.

- Add cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks are formed
- Add fine sugar and beat at high speed until stiff shiny peaks are formed
- Sift (again) sugar and almond mixture into the whisked egg - fold

- Transfer mixture into a pastry bag and pipe it onto a baking sheet forming flat round cookie shaped macaroons.

- Let it sit for 15 minutes before putting into oven
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until lightly brown
- Remove from oven and let it sit for 10 minutes. They flatten out slightly as you can see.
- Macaroons should be firm and crisp

- Once cooled, spread the chocolate ganache between to macaroons like a filling in a sandwich.

Something sweet for the soul this Valentine's Day! Till the next post, God bless!

Tangy Salad Dressing

2012-01-14T22:59:00.000+08:00

I love the color orange! It's warm and fuzzy and it's all over one of my bedroom walls. In fact, every morning I make a smoothie with orange juice, vanilla yoghurt and an assortment of fruits like banana, kiwi, blueberry. I will upload those smoothies recipes soon. But first, a request from my friend Jolene for this tangy salad dressing. I made this when I was making a sauce for my champagne baked ham and it turned out superb for a salad dressing!

Ingredients

50ml of orange juice
3 tablespoons of bitter marmalade
4 to 5 tablespoons of honey
1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil

Method

Add orange juice, marmalade, honey and olive oil to a saucepan
Stir on low heat for about 5 minutes
Remove and let it cool before dressing salad

It's a sweet, tangy salad dressing that interestingly happy! Makes your salad come alive ... :-)

Till the next post, enjoy!

The way I like my cheesecake

2012-01-04T20:52:00.002+08:00

It's the start to the New Year and doom and gloom are all plastered over the newspapers. So is your glass half empty or half full this year? The good news is that you have another 12 months to make your 2012 count so don't start expecting the worse.

New year, new era, new KPIs for yourself, new action, new friends, new accomplishments, new ways to be a blessing, new words to raise spirits, new challenges to meet, new joys to uncover, new memories to make, and of course, new recipes to share.

I harken to Joshua when he was tasked to lead the people into the Promise Land after Moses' death. New era, new beginning, and God assured him that He will not forsake him and that Joshua be strong and courageous and do what is according to the law, and not turn to the left or to the right. For then God will make his way prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1)

So take heart my friends! HE will not forsake us!

My first recipe for 2012, is my favorite-test, cheesecake. I baked it over New Year's eve for a small family gathering. It's quite a solid cheesecake, not the soft crumbly kind. It's thick, slightly lemony and packed with cheese goodness, the way I like my cheesecake.

Ingredients

2 packets of cream cheese (I use Philadelphia cream cheese)
2 eggs, separate egg yolks and egg whites
1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar depending on level of sweetness (I use just 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon of lemon rind
1 to 2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
200g of Digestive biscuits
100g of melted butter

Method

Heat oven to 170 degrees Celsius
Make the biscuit base first by crushing Digestive biscuits. I put the biscuits into a large ziplock bag and crush it with my rolling pin.
Pour the crumbs into a bowl and add melting butter and 1 tablespoon of sugar
Press the mixture to fill the bottom of your baking dish. I use a pie dish for this.
Bake for 10 minutes at 170 degree Celsius then remove from oven and let it cool.

Now for the cheese cake.

Separate 2 egg yolks from the 2 egg whites.
Cream 1 packet of cream cheese with 1 egg yolk.
Only when it is well mixed, add the second packet of cream cheese and the other egg yolk
Continue to mix until the mixture is consistent
Add vanilla essence, lemon rind and lemon juice and mix well
Beat the 2 egg whites into a foam with an egg beater
Gently fold in the egg white foam until it is mixed. Fold, do not stir
Fill the pie dish with the cheese mixture

8. Bake for 45 minutes at 170 degree Celsius

9. Let it cool and leave it in the fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours

Here's a tip on how to slice cheesecake. You dip your knife into hot water before slicing each time.

My perfect cheesecake!

Enjoy! You can keep it in the fridge for a couple of days and it'll taste just as good. Till my next post, God bless!

About an orangey twist to a Champagne Baked Ham

2011-12-27T21:57:00.000+08:00

Christmas carols are still ringing in my ears and Michael Buble is still spinning in my CD player! I love his new Christmas album by the way. I also love family gatherings during Christmas. Families and relatives come in all shapes and sizes and we cannot choose them. Quirky, gawky and dopey, they're still part of us somehow. So we make the best of them. And that's how I learned to enjoy their company, no matter how interesting some may be. The bible says "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling." 1 Peter 4:9 If you cook well then bless them with your cooking. Food for thought.

Golden brown champagne honey marmalade ham.
Follow the recipe to transform your ordinary ham
into something spectacular!

My recent venture into turning an ordinary baked ham became quite a stunner during my own Christmas party, and it calls for some mention in my blog. Now, I don't fancy a big round honey baked ham during Christmas, because I think it's boring. You buy it off the supermarket and you warm it up and that's that. But last week, I saw a very interesting recipe in "8 days" magazine by Italian Chef Osvaldo Forlino. He recommended using a plain cooked shoulder of ham, bone-in. I, however, decided to try it on a pre-cooked champagne baked ham (no bones), tweaked the ingredients slightly ... and I loved how it turned out.

The plain Champagne ham I bought from Cold Storage

Ingredients

1 pre-cooked champagne baked ham (honey baked ham would be okay too)
50 ml orange juice
3 tablespoons of marmalade (I used bitter marmalade jam)
4 to 5 tablespoons of honey
About 20 to 30 whole cloves
1 sprig fresh rosemary
3 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (I used rice bran oil)

Method

Orange juice, honey and marmalade marinate

Looks like a cloves pin cushion!

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees Celsius
Mix orange juice, honey and marmalade
Criss-cross the outer layer of the ham with a sharp knife making diamond shapes
Stick wholes cloves into each diamond-cut shaped
Pour the marinate over the ham and let it sit for an hour
Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown, basking the ham with the sauce every 10 minutes.
Pour the remaining sauce into a separate bowl and serve with ham.

I was just at the supermarket today and there are loads of baked ham left over. I'm pretty sure they're being sold at a discounted price. You could try this for a New Year's party! Never too late to eat ham :-).

It's sweet, it's savory, it's tangy, it's packed with a nice clove flavor ... it's pretty darn good. My hubby used the sauce as a dressing for the salad as well. So enjoy and cheers for the coming New Year!

About potlucks and potato salads

2011-12-21T22:43:00.000+08:00

According to Wikipedia, potluck is also known as Jacob's join, faith supper and in swedish Smorgasbord. A plethora of words to describe coming together to eat. How wonderful when folks share a hotchpotch of dishes; good food and good fellowship.

Like potluck, this version of potato salad is a little bit of everything. It's sweet, it's savory, it's a snack, it's a meal. It's also a hot favorite when I bring it to a potluck. This is a humble recipe that I learned from an aunty and have since adapted it. At home, we eat this every Thursdays for some reason I'm not sure of. My kids love it! It has almonds, raisins, egg, pineapple ... and it goes great with pork chops (that recipe coming up in the next few weeks, so watch out for that) ... is once again very easy to put together. If you're looking for something to prepare for a Christmas party or an office party, try making this!

Ingredients

5 large potatoes
20 whole almonds
3 hard boiled eggs
1 cup of raisins
1 cup of diced pineapple
chopped 1 sprig of spring onion
2-3 tablespoon of Mayonnaise

Method

Boil potatoes.
Mash potatoes into bite size as shown above.
Mash separately hard boiled eggs into bite size.
Add all the ingredients together and mix well.

I like it served cold, so after mixing all the ingredients, I will leave it in the fridge for about an hour.

About Christmas and Grass Juice

2011-12-19T22:24:00.000+08:00

I'm heartened to know that even in multi-racial Singapore, traditional Christmas carols are not just heard but sung in many a office and home parties. Whether Christian or not, Christmas has a special meaning for everyone. But I especially find it more beautiful when songs of our Lord's birth and God's hope to mankind are being sung by all. Christ came for all. And somehow in this madness of the modern commercialized Christmas, the significance of the day Jesus was given to this world is still very real. He came to walk with us, to laugh with us, to cry with us, to be with us. Truly Emmanuel, God with us!

I'm getting ready for a meaty Christmas eve party at home this Saturday. As much as I indulge in meaty delights, I also like enjoy my healthy mix of juices and smoothies. Since I am pretty adventurous with fruits juice, I have decided to plunge into making grass juice! I read that wheatgrass is a very healthy ... grass to consume. This humble grass is highly exalted in antioxidants, vitamins and disease fighting capabilities. Without wanting to feel like a goat munching on grass, I searched for a drinkable chlorophyll juice which I must say, it quite delectable.

Here's my pre-Christmas, get-healthy-before-the-meaty-party, wheatgrass apple honey juice! By the way, you'll need a juicer for this. If you don't have one, use a blender and then get a sieve or a filter bag (the kind you use for traditional coffee shop coffee) to drain out the juice.

Ingredients

1 green apple
1 table spoon honey
1 bunch of wheatgrass about 1 inch in diameter

Method

Dissolve honey in warm water
Cut up apple into small pieces
If you don't have a juicer, blender the apple, wheatgrass and honey water together then use a filter bag to drain out the juice.

Enjoy this wonderful yet humble chlorophyll-powered juice and start Christmas healthy!

It's a beautiful emerald green juice!

Cheers to all!

Smoothies-a-goody!

2011-12-11T22:08:00.000+08:00

I bought a new food processor yesterday that could do more than mince onions to a pulp. Well, it could make smoothies and had a separate attachment to make fruit juices! I drink 2 glasses of fruit juice everyday. NOW, I can down more. Muhahaha!!! Diary of the Fruit Juice Guzzler ... should start writing a book about it.

Now back to my new toy. I was looking around for a smoothie recipe and many of these recipes call for yoghurt. I didn't stock yoghurt in the fridge this week, so I tried my hand making a smoothie with fruits I could find in the kitchen. It turned out superb!

Ingredients

1 banana
4 strawberries
1 cup of orange juice
6 cubes of ice

Method

Cut the banana into about 5 to 6 smaller pieces.
Add all the ingredients into the food processor and spin for 30s
Serve cold

* A note for readers who enjoy alcoholic smoothies, you can also add Malibu rum which is a coconut flavored rum into the concoction.

It's my new healthy snack-a-drink (the one without the rum that it). I'll be trying different combinations of fruits, plus when I next get my hands on some yoghurt, I'll spin a couple of yoghurt smoothies for a taste test too. Till my next post, happy experimenting!

About honeycomb, pleasant words and baked homemade barbecue sauce chicken

2011-12-07T13:47:00.002+08:00

Pleasant words are like honeycomb, sweet to the soul, healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16:24

How true! Here's another one.

A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

Proverbs 25:11

Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Food for thought.

And about honey, sweet, smooth, healing ... and kids-friendly! I experimented with honey, ketchup and chicken wings and came up with this concoction that my kids simply love. It's a simple homemade barbecue sauce that's easy to put together. In fact, it's great for any occasion. And the best part, you don't have to use any oil. I've made this over two Christmases and it's still one of the hot favourites at my Christmas party.

Ingredients

2 to 3 tablespoons of ketchup
1 tablespoon of honey
2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon of mixed herbs
1/2 teaspoon of crushed peppercorns or ground pepper
8 to 10 chicken wings

Method

Mix the ketchup, honey, Worcestershire sauce, mixed herbs, and pepper
Marinate the chicken wings and leave it for about an hour
Meanwhile heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Place marinated chicken wings into a baking tray lined with aluminum foil
Bake for 30 minutes

And the result, simply delicious. You can drizzle the gravy over the chicken wings. Serve hot.

Fried La La Clams in lemongrass chilli paste

2011-11-26T12:08:00.002+08:00

Have you ever wondered why these clams are called La-la? They also have a host of other shelled relatives called Chut-chut and Gong-gong. I wonder if they're known by these names overseas? Perhaps it's just a Singapore nomenclature for such bivalves.

Even though I don't fancy seafood, I like to cook them for my hubby. He's my greatest food fan! But he can't take very spicy food, so I've made a chilli paste from scratch that isn't that spicy but very rich in flavour to cook with the La-la clams.

You will need a mortar and pestle for this, so roll up your sleeves and get ready to "tumbuk" the ingredients. This is one of the best ways to get all the flavours from the raw ingredients to mix together. My darling Angie was watching on as I was pounding the chilli paste. I like to work on the mortar and pestle on the kitchen floor. I put a towel under it so that it wouldn't be so noisy.

Ingredients

1 kg La-la clams
1/2 to 1 cup of ketchup
7 large chillies
2 medium-size onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 stalks of lemongrass
2 cm size ginger
salt to taste

Method

Slice and dice the chillies, onions, garlic, lemongrass and ginger. You can grind it further by adding the ingredients into a food chopper.
Use a mortar and pestle to grind the chopped ingredients into a paste.
Heat up a frying pan and add a dash of oil. Then fry the paste for about 5 minutes or until you can smell the aroma of the paste.
Add salt to taste.
Add ketchup. Add more if you want it less spicy.
Add the clams. Fry until all the clams are opened.
Serve while hot.

Yummy!

For those like me who don't quite fancy clams, you can always fry the lemongrass chilli paste with veggies alone, such as ladies fingers, tomatoes and brinjal or aubergine.

And the best part of this chill paste is that you can pound it and save it in the freezer and use it whenever you need it!

Have a try and me let know what you think.

Of Wantons, wontons and dumplings

2011-11-04T23:00:00.000+08:00

It can be spelt either way, "wanton" or "wonton". Nowhere close to being promiscuous, the "wonton" is how the Cantonese would call the dumpling which looks like a-cloud-that-can-be-easily-swallowed. God bless the Chinese language. They only needed TWO characters to explain all that!

But what I'm about to unleash is a dumpling formula with a crunch. I like to make my wontons big and crunchy. Then you can stuff in all the yummy goodness you want in it.

This is my mom's recipe, and over the years I have ... well, upsized it. Here's what you need.

Ingredients

5 to 7 water chestnuts, peeled and diced finely
200g of minced pork
10 prawns, shelled and chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
1 packet of wonton skin (squares)
soya sauce and pepper to taste
1 cube of chicken stock

Method

Mix minced pork, prawns, water chestnut and spring onion together.
Add soya sauce (I add about 2 to 3 tablespoons of soya sauce. You can adjust it to your taste) and pepper to taste.
Mix well.
Spoon a full teaspoon of the mixture onto one half of a piece of wanton skin as shown, leaving space on the other half for the skin to fold over.
Wet the edges of the skin with water and fold the dumpling into a rectangle. I can make up to 25 dumplings.
Bring a pot of water to boil and add 1/2 to 1 cube of chicken stock. Add the dumplings one at a time. The dumplings will float to the surface when they're cooked.

They look like pillows!

Served with boiled PaChoy or Chinese Cabbage

These lovely wonton dumplings go great with cut chill and soy sauce. They look heavenly too, just like cloud pillows! Thus the reason for the wonton being directly translated as "cloud swallow". And talking of clouds, it reminds me of God's divine presence and protection over his people lead by Moses in the wilderness (Exodus 13:21); a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.

I normally cook the noodles separately and then add the dumplings and the soup only when I'm ready to eat it. It's a fun dish to try and the chopped up bits of the water chestnut gives this dumpling a fun crunch.

Oil-free salad dressing

2011-10-27T23:36:00.000+08:00

I'm thankful my kids like eating salad. Fresh lettuce, broiled broccoli, raw carrots ... the works. They actually enjoy crunching and munching chlorophyll! I'm thankful I started them young because I've heard horror stories of kids waging war against the greens just like how the Autobots and the Deceptacons crush metal in Cybertron. Where is the love?

Other than the usual lettuce (and sometimes rockets), broccoli, carrots and Japanese cucumbers, I normally add a touch of raisins and shredded mild cheddar. It looks colorful and there's a nice assortment of tastes. I think pine nuts would be delightful too!

I prefer a light dressing that is oil-free and this is one of the easiest dressing to do. Plus, it's very tasty and healthy.

Ingredients (Just two!)

Honey
Lemon juice

That's it!

Method

Mix 2 tablespoons of honey with 4 tablespoons of freshly juiced lemon juice. If you prefer it sweeter, just increase the amount of honey to your taste.
Pour it over the salad just before you serve.

Oil-free and fuss-free. I like. :-)

And I leave you with this food for thought ...

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. (Proverbs 16:24)

White Bait White Pancakes - another fishy tale

2011-10-25T14:02:00.000+08:00

Still on the subject of fish, have you ever wondered what this symbol is?

Fish lah! I know that too! But what does it mean? Well after some snooping around online, I found that the "Fish" was a very important symbol of Christianity since the early church. "Fish" in Greek is "ICHTHUS" which is an acronym for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour". Food for thought!

Like I said, I don't like eating fish. But here's another fish dish I tried and thoroughly enjoyed - cooking and eating it. I came across this recipe while watching "Annabel Langbein - The Free Range Cook" on BBC Lifestyle and decided to give it a try. All you really need is White Bait (whitish longish ikan bilis-type of fish - easily bought at NTUC) and egg white. Also, it'll be handy if you have an electric egg beater.

Ingredients

1 packet of White Bait (about 200g to 300g - fresh, uncooked. Don't buy the cooked ones)
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon of flour (I use corn flour instead)
Parsley or spring onion, finely chopped
Pepper and salt to taste

Method

Wash and pat dry the white bait with a kitchen towel. Add about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt to marinate. I had the head removed because my son has this thing about fish eyes staring at him when he's eating them. Kids and their pet peeves. :-)

2. Beat egg white until stiff. For me, this takes about 5 to 10 mins with an electric egg beater at high speed.

3. Add the white bait, corn flour, parsley/spring onion, salt and pepper into the beaten egg white and combine mixture.

4. Scoop a dollop of mixture into a lightly oiled frying pan. Fry until brown.

It's crispy on the outside and spongy on the inside. Looks like vadai but much softer. It could taste yummy with shrimp instead of white bait. Give it a try!

Baked Red Snapper - feeding the multitude

2011-10-20T22:41:00.001+08:00

How do you feed a multitude? You just need 5 loaves and 2 fishes. Of course, the Chef that cooked that dish, let's just say He had a higher calling. The taste test, to put it simply, turned out to be miraculous! (Mark 6:30-44)

No I didn't feed a multitude. I can only manage to entertain my brood. But to be honest, I don't fancy cooking or eating fish. Poached or steamed fish isn't my thing. So I tend to look out for "less-fishy" recipes that involve baking or frying.

I found this easy-to-do recipe in a magazine (I think it's 8 Days Dec, 2009) about 2 year back but only tried it last week. I actually enjoyed it. It's not fishy at all, it's healthy, the fish meat is moist ... plus, it's fuss-free (unlike having to clean up after pan-frying fish ... oil splatter everywhere tsk tsk tsk).

Ingredients

500g to 1kg whole red snapper, gutted and scaled
1/4 cup oil
2 potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 tomatoes, quartered
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp Bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley for garnish
lemon halved

Method

Pre-heat oven to 220 (degrees Celsius).
Boil potatoes in water for 5 minutes. Drain.
Place fish in a baking tray. Season both sides with salt and pepper. (You can either squeeze the lemon over the fish now or you can do it after the fish is baked.)
Surround fish with potatoes, tomatoes and garlic (I sliced them thinly). Add sugar to the vegetables to bring out sweetness (neat trick!)
Drizzle oil over the fish and veggies before finishing off with a sprinkle of breadcrumbs on top. ( I made the mistake of adding too much oil coz' I didn't wear my glasses with I was checking the ingredients. 1/4 cup is just about enough)
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 mins.
Remove foil and sprinkle fish with parsley. Turn down oven temp to 180 (degree Celsius) and bake for another 15 mins.

Here's how my baked fish turned out.

Have a try and let me know how it works out! Enjoy!