No-Frills Recipes

Taro with baby kai lan

2012-02-13T11:00:00.002+08:00

I'm a big fan of Taro ~ Yam and we were introduced to this dish when we dined at a restaurant just before Chinese New Year. It became an instant hit with my family members and I didn't hesitate to stock up this baby kai lan and taro before the market place closed for the festive season. Managed to replicate this dish to suit our palate and it was delicious.

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Konnyaku jelly with Honey citron tea

2012-02-09T17:01:00.002+08:00

To combat the current hot weather these days, I made this konnyaku jelly with honey citron tea to ward off the heat from our body system. Honey citron tea known as Yuja in Korean and Yuzu in Japanese is a traditional Korean tea known to be a good cold and flu remedy. It contains 1.5 times more natural vitamin C then the orange and taking this helps to overcome fatique as well. Making a hot drink with a couple of teaspoons of this jelly marmalade makes a very soothing beverage for sore throat. Here's what I did and you'll agree with me that it's super easy.

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'Nian Gao' sweet potato parcels ~ CNY 2012

2012-02-06T15:39:00.001+08:00

'Nian Gao' ~ the sticky glutinous rice cake is regarded as an auspicious item during the Chinese New Year as its round shape signifies family reunion and harmony and its sweetness symbolises a rich, sweet life. 'Nian' sounds similar to 'year' and 'Gao' is 'high' in Chinese, thus Nian Gao implies promotion and prosperity year after year. Hence it's a common practice that these glutinous rice cakes are piled up on the altar as an offering to the Gods with a wish for abundance in all aspects for the coming year!

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Arrow head, leeks and roast pork stir-fry

2012-02-03T00:43:00.000+08:00

Arrow heads or 'Nga Ku' in Cantonese are considered special as they're only available once a year and that is during the Chinese NewYear. Arrow heads, an aquatic tuber plant are perceived to be auspicious because of the tiny offshoots protruding from the bulbs ~ a symbol of reproductivity. It is hoped that the consumption of 'nga ku', more so among the newlyweds will help bring forth more sons who will carry on with the family name. The Chinese leeks or 'shuen' in Cantonese carries a homonym that sounds like 'counting money' which is associated with wealth and prosperity and everything symbolic for the Year of the Dragon!

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Fish Maw ~ Fa Kau soup

2012-01-30T14:30:00.001+08:00

K nown in Cantonese as 'Fa Kau', I made this fish maw soup for our recent Chinese New Year reunion dinner. Fish maw refers to the fish stomach that has been extracted, cleaned and sundried and is only sold in dried form and needs to be reconstituted before cooking. After cooking, the texture resembles somewhat like the sea cucumber as it's slippery and gelatinous with a mild fishy and rather bland taste.

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Chinese New Year ~ 2012

2012-01-23T01:16:00.000+08:00

Wishing All my Readers and Friends
A Happy, Prosperous, Healthy, Wealthy and Joyous

Chinese New Year

~Gong Xi Gong Xi~

Savoury Chicken Crispies ~ CNY 2012

2012-01-16T11:13:00.000+08:00

Sweet goodies are usually served to visitors during Chinese New Year and very rarely do we see anything that is savoury. So for this year, I made something different ~ Savoury Chicken Crispies. They taste delicious and family members do agree with me that this is something different from the norm and gave the thumbs up!

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Green Pea Cookies ~ CNY 2012

2012-01-13T00:27:00.000+08:00

These Green Pea cookies do not need much introduction as they have surfaced amongst the Chinese New Year cookies in recent years. This recipe is adapted from Elinluv's Tidbits Corner and these melt-in-the-mouth cookies are really very yummy and you won't really stop at one.

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Orange bundt cake

2012-01-09T12:52:00.000+08:00

O range Bundt cake is another cake that I made recently for the New Year. This cake is indeed delicious with the addition of orange zest and chocolate powder and I must admit that it was a good combination of flavours. Thought you may like to try baking this for the coming Chinese New Year which falls on Monday, 23rd January this year.

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Apricot and almond cookies ~ CNY 2012

2012-01-05T23:27:00.000+08:00

I made a small batch of this Apricot and Almond cookies to sample for the coming Chinese New Year and they were good. I rarely use dried fruits in my cookies but this combination of dried apricots and almonds is worth a try and therefore would like to share the recipe with you.

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Red velvet cupcakes ~ Happy 2012

2012-01-01T00:36:00.000+08:00

Red velvet cupcakes were what I made to usher in 2012. These crimson red cute little cupcakes were soft and moist and everyone liked the vibrant colour, just right for the New Year. As my family members were not fond of cream or cheesy icing of any sort, I resorted to using good old icing sugar to spice up and give a contrasting colour to these cupcakes.

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Tong yuen in red bean soup

2011-12-22T01:15:00.001+08:00

F or this year's Winter Solstice festival aka 'Dong Zhi', which is today, I've churned out a slightly different version of 'Tong Yuen'. Yes, the tong yuen ~ glutinous rice balls are the same but the sweet soup base is different. Instead of clear syrup, I made a red bean sweet soup to go with the rice balls. To those of you who are celebrating this festival, have a wonderful and joyous Winter Solstice!

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Mango Trifle

2011-12-19T17:50:00.000+08:00

Mango Trifle ~ a light and refreshing dessert to round up a sumptuous X'mas dinner. Basically, there's no recipe for this, no hard and fast rule, you just load on what you have at hand, layer by layer, sponge cake or any leftover cake, custard, jam, fruits, whipped cream, whatever you can think of. Drench it with more alcohol if you want to be intoxicated during this festive season!

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Almond crusted rhubarb cake

2011-12-14T23:30:00.002+08:00

I've heard of rhubarb many a time and I was thrilled when I spotted them in the supermarket during my recent vacation. Rhubarb is a vegetable, a perennial plant growing from short, thick rhizome with large triangular leaves. Mind you, the leaves are toxic and they are discarded from the stems before they are cooked. Without much hesitation I grabbed a bunch, googled for recipes, tweaked a bit, plus and minus the ingredients and came up with this 'Almond crusted rhubarb cake'.

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Yoghurt Fruitcake

2011-12-12T17:30:00.000+08:00

T is the festive season again and the all-time favourite for X'mas is undoubtedly the ubiquitous fruit cake. This Yoghurt Fruitcake caught my eye when I was browsing through a Food and Travel magazine. As I've never baked a fruit cake with yoghurt before, I was very eager to try.

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Salted egg steamed chicken

2011-12-06T11:03:00.000+08:00

Of late, I notice that various salted egg dishes have surfaced on the menu of restaurants and eateries. Most popular of all is the salted egg with crabs with both the wet and dry versions. I've also recently tasted salted egg with pumpkin and salted egg with beancurd and lately some bloggers have posted fried rice with salted egg. I have recently coined this dish ....... 'Salted egg steamed Chicken' and would like to share it with you.

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Teriyaki chicken noodle

2011-11-29T09:34:00.000+08:00

Teriyaki chicken noodle is another all-in-one comfort meal which I served for dinner recently. I'm always game for an easy and quick meal. Simple, yet wholesome.........

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Brunch at Fu Tien Vegetarian

2011-11-22T07:30:00.008+08:00

Recently, we had brunch at a vegetarian shop in Medan Ipoh Bistari ~ Fu Tien vegetarian. I find that the menu is slightly different from the norm as they have sushi, bento and other a-la-carte dishes that sound interesting. I ordered some sushi as I've never tasted vegetarian ones before.

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Taro~Yam bundt cake

2011-11-17T07:30:00.000+08:00

T aro~Yam is a versatile vegetable which has various derivative products after process. It can be roasted, fried, grilled, boiled and here I'm presenting a bundt cake made with steamed and smashed yam. Yes, I love yam served in any form and this tuber root is grown in semi-tropical and tropical climates all over the world. Taro is high in dietary fibre, rich in vitamins E and B6, also an excellent source of potassium, some calcium, magnesium, manganese and copper. This tuber is inedible raw and must be cooked through to leach out the calcium oxalate which is toxic. In addition, because of its low caloric content, this makes it an ideal food for those who are conscious of their waistline!

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Braised pork belly

2011-11-14T11:02:00.000+08:00

This is a very simple porky dish. I just braised it with some spice, garlic, soya sauces and it turned out quite tasty. Should have added in some hard boiled eggs but forgotten all about it after I left it to simmer and attended to other chores. Nonetheless, it was well received when it was served for dinner.
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Apple curry chicken

2011-11-10T00:35:00.000+08:00

I overheard two ladies chatting at my usual market place and one of them said she recently made curry chicken with red apple and it was just delicious, The other lady looked at her in awe and so did I. I only heard that the apple which was used in lieu of the usual potatoes must be crunchy. Curiosity prompted me to experiment with this and here's my version of Curry chicken with Apple and sugarless Soymilk.

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Purple sweet potato chiffon cake

2011-11-07T16:18:00.001+08:00

P urple sweet potato chiffon cake has been on my 'wanted' list for a long, long time. I adapted the recipe from 'Do what I like' but tweaked it a bit to suit my 23 cm chiffon cake pan. I was delighted to be rewarded with a pinkish purplish cake with bits of potato cubes that didn't sink to the bottom!
The highly nutritious purple sweet potato is the latest food item to be presented to the general public as a potential superfood. The colour is the important part as it is this purple colour which is responsible for the amount of anthocyanim in the potato. Anthocyanim which produces red, blue or purple colours in different types of food can also be found in blueberries, red grapes and red cabbage. However, the purple sweet potato has a higher concentration of the chemical than any other species of potatoes. This is effective for lowering hypertension and is one of the best foods that one can eat to prevent cancer.

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Orange Choc-chip cupcake

2011-11-03T16:14:00.003+08:00

This recipe is slightly different from my previous post of Orange cupcake. I added choc-chips to this cupcake and instead of using self-raising flour, I opted for plain flour. The reward was a soft and delicious cupcake filled with orange and choc-chips flavour.

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King Prawn Spaghetti

2011-10-31T10:28:00.000+08:00

A n 'East meets West' straightforward one-dish meal ~ Spaghetti cooked 'al dente', laced with King crustacean cooked in Asian oyster sauce with baby asparagus on the side. This is a three-in-one dish of carbohydrates, protein, dietary fiber cum vitamins from the greens ~ asparagus.
Asparagus, low in saturated fat and very low in cholesterol comes from the edible stem of a plant. It is also related to onions, garlic and leeks. Although there is a wide variety of asparagus, surprisingly, only a handful of them are edible and provide health benefits. They can be harvested in three colours, mainly, white, purple and green. Nutrients ...... yes, they are a good source of vitamin K, folate and vitamin C.

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Sour plum chicken

2011-10-27T12:05:00.000+08:00

This crispy sour plum chicken dish is another family favourite and in this instance I've used boneless chicken leg. Easy to prepare ~ just marinate the chicken with some seasoning, dip it in some cornflour to coat, deepfry, ladle on the sauce and is ready to be enjoyed.

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