Rita's Basket

Dong Zhi Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Balls)

2011-12-22T18:16:00.001+08:00

Happy Winter Solstice (Dong Zhi 冬至) everybody. I got up early this morning to make some tang yuan (湯圓) which is enjoyed by many Chinese families, normally celebrated around 22 December. Together with Hubby and the little one, we made some. To me they all turned out beautifully, does not matter that they are different or odd sizes but made as a family. This is a simple recipe, made enough

Santa's Fruitcake

2011-12-17T22:12:00.000+08:00

A Christmas fruitcake I have a 20 year-old recipe shared by an elderly aunt. I've been making this fruitcake for the last 6 years for Christmas and Chinese New Year too. It's not complicated, not too sweet or oily but flavourful and colourful. Don't worry if you don't have rum, I used brandy here. Ingredients (A) 250g butter (I used Anchor salted butter) 150g caster sugar (

Hello December 2011

2011-12-17T00:42:00.000+08:00

Should be "Hello Christmas"… which is more like it! I’ve just got back my laptop after having it being classified “Requires Hospitalisation” for some major repairs. I wish I'm smarter then all I needed to do would be to hook it to a life-support machine, cut it open, change some organs, prescribed some antidote...run some tests and voila! 2 follow-up checks and everything will be fine...

Muffins...muffins again

2011-09-23T23:39:00.000+08:00

Chocolate Chip Cranberries Nut Muffins and Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins Using the same recipe here, I made more muffins with dark chocolate chips, dried cranberries and chopped almond (almond nibs). Chocolate Chip Cranberries Nut Muffins Same recipe Substitute strawberries with 1/4 cup dried cranberries (chopped) 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips and another 1/4 cup for sprinkling on top 1/3

Funny #1 - Husband Day Care Center

2011-09-19T07:30:00.000+08:00

Feeling Monday blues? :-) This is a very different posting. Nothing to do with food but I found something just too funny! I saw these pics and knew I just gotta share with you. You may have come across these. :-D Wife on retail therapy mission does not need to feel guilty about abandoning hubbies at home or drag them along on shopping sprees, or to carry the shopping bags. Hubbies can

Cooling Chinese Sugar Cane Drink

2011-09-16T23:19:00.000+08:00

As the weather is not easing up with hot dry spells and occasionally granted some scattered rain in the afternoons and some hazy days, my good neighbour, Popo J gave us some Sugar Cane (In Cantonese, “Chook-Cheh”) from her garden to boil to cool down our bodies. The Sugar Cane stem is dark red-black. I chopped the stems into 5-6” in lengths, and scrapped off the sides. Chopped

Homemade Beef Pepper Rice Teppanyaki-like Style

2011-09-14T23:35:00.000+08:00

We have been visiting Pepper Lunch for their Beef Pepper Rice once too often. It's really yummy and pretty addictive!… I’m embarrassed to admit, it’s something like 2-4 times in a month in the last few months …sigh!... Max’s favourite (at the moment!) So, Daddy decided to make Daddy’s Homemade Beef Pepper Rice, his own version! :-D 150-180g beef chuck tenderloin, sliced

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

2011-09-13T23:36:00.000+08:00

Sori, this posting is a little late... :-( Wishing all a very Happy Mid-Autumn and Lantern Festival. I’ll bet most of you had a wonderful family-friends reunion with lots of good food with mooncakes, water caltrops, baby yams to the accompaniments of softly-lit Chinese lanterns and children chatter-laughters as I did at my Mom’s place. (Max with homemade Lantern, a car made by

Strawberry Muffins

2011-08-26T08:30:00.000+08:00

Breakfast and school snack box gets more interesting this week with these fluffy muffins. I tried these muffins after having read the good reviews and adapted slightly. Daily snack of bread with jam spread, peanut butter, nutella, ham-eggs is getting boring and "uncool" as I was duly informed by the little one…sigh!...oh, the fussy one :-) As strawberries are his favourite and his Dad's, I

Chicken Thigh with Dan-gui

2011-08-19T23:27:00.000+08:00

Quick dish Chinese sometimes incorporate herbs into their cooking for their nutritional benefits as well as enhancing the flavour. Here, I’ve chosen to use dang-gui (a powerful blood tonic) together with chicken thigh. The chicken being steamed wrapped in aluminium foil, where the flavour produced is fully-contained within, resulting in chicken essence gravy, lightly salted with

Okra with bacon

2011-08-12T22:46:00.000+08:00

Quick dish I seem to be positing lots of easy, quick dishes, especially for working moms. :-) I hope this is helpful... I have posted about health benefits of steaming veggies that you may have read. Okra is one of my favourite veggies. Wash and clean the okra, trim off the upper stem and cut into 2 or 3, cross-wise, about 4 - 5cm. Steam for 7-10 mins till fork tender but still firm

Nutella Swirl Pound Cake

2011-08-10T22:38:00.019+08:00

I made this some months ago when some friends came over for coffee. Being too busy at that time I forgot completely later about posting it. This is a very beautiful recipe with my favourite Nutella Chocolate Hazelnut Spread. I saw this in Food and Wine, thanks to Laura Chattman, Cake Keeper Cakes. If you like Nutella, you will like this! 185g plain flour, plus some for dusting 4

Oven-grilled Chicken Wings

2011-08-08T23:26:00.013+08:00

We had some nice chicken wings last week. These yummy snacks were so popular, we had to wait 40mins for just 3 BBQ wings at the local hawkers center! There's a long queue for these in most places. So, I decided to make our own… and it’s not too difficult. 6 chicken wings 2 ½ - 3 tbsp light soy sauce 1 tbsp maltose 1 tsp ginger juice 1 tsp chilli sauce (optional) A dash

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

2011-08-04T23:57:00.001+08:00

Here are some good looking polka-dot muffins which will delight little kids, and adults too! These muffins are moist, tender and not too sweet. As suggested I added more orange zest. I used the zest of 3 oranges as that’s all I have in my fruit basket. The chocolate chips will provide the needed ‘sweetness’. I like the strong citrusy orange aroma… mmm…it’s wonderful! Chocolate chips and

Appliance Review - Elba Electric Food Steamer

2011-07-28T23:57:00.000+08:00

I share sentiments with most Kitchen Bosses (~_^), all gadgets and appliances make kitchen management so much easier and faster :-). Here’s something that I took for granted till somebody mentioned how useful the electrical food steamer is. The Elba food steamer model EFS-6882 is a 2-tier model with a 60-minutes maximum timer bell signal. I truly found the timer terribly helpful. I

Stir-fry Beansprout

2011-07-25T23:13:00.003+08:00

My son shocked me one day with request for beansprout! But, he is not fond of veggies!!! Quickly I went out to get a packet for 40cents. Never mind that the cost of fuel! 8-) … it’s good to see him taking a few forkful into his mouth. This is one of the quickest dish…trust me! :-D 3 pips of garlic, chopped small1½ - 2 tsp of light soy sauce (to taste)1 tsp of oil 1. Soak beansprout for

Fruity Snack

2011-07-22T23:27:00.000+08:00

Fruit Yogurt Parfait Antioxidants, fruits, yoghurt, Vitamin C, ….and the healthy diets….and so on so on… J I know I’m trying to get healthier with concoction of healthy servings of fresh fruits to battle toxins and aging…sigh!...yes, age is catching up. We have to ensure we get sufficient Vit-C and antioxidants to keep free radicals away. Here’s something pretty easy to throw

A Bowl of TLC Goodness Noodles

2011-07-14T23:38:00.000+08:00

My Mom used to make Mee Suah Soup (In Cantonese Mein Seen Tong) when we were young and sick or just recovering. It’s soft, easy on digestion and comforting. I loved it then and still do now. Mee Suah is flour vermicelli, basically made of wheat flour and salt. The brand that I used, is a little salty, so I have omitted the salt as the anchovies soup is rich and a little salty too.

Chinese Steamed Yam Cake (Wutao-kou)

2011-07-11T23:10:00.006+08:00

This has always been on my To-Do List and finally I got it done! And taste good too, if Hb may say so... (biased, probably?) :-D My Mom used to make this quite often and as usual I didn't pay attention then, but I remembered vaguely this is how it's done. I found a nice medium size round yam in the morning market and knew I just gotta get it to make Chinese Steamed Yam Cake. I

Sunrise Peach Muffin

2011-07-08T23:22:00.000+08:00

Why Sunrise Peach Muffin? I got up at 6.00am, prepared the ingredients, made them and got them out of oven just at sunrise for breakfast on Saturday morning. :-) hibiscus from my garden I should be lazing in bed, snuggled up and pulled the quilt up to my ears… and forget about the alarm clock but I thought of making these muffins…for my little guy and Hb, well, I do like a

Appliance Review - Kenwood Mixer MX270

2011-07-03T23:16:00.006+08:00

This is an independent product review and I am not paid for this review. This is solely my opinion from using this for some time. I bought the MX270 a year ago after having ‘broken’ 2 units earlier. One of the unit’s bearings dropped out into the batter while I was mixing… eeeuuuww… I had an argument with the company representative who made unfair accusations at me when I sent it in for repair

Fried Rice with Ham

2011-07-01T22:58:00.000+08:00

What's for lunch, Mom? Sounds familiar? Like most mothers, weekend is the time to catch up on housework, laundries/ironing, stocking up pantry and putting your love into the kitchen to feed the army…haha, in this case, an army of 3 only! :-D Here’s one simple and quick lunch fix. Fried Rice with Ham 3 bowls of cooked white rice4 pips of garlic, chopped small3 slices of ham, cut small2 tsp of

No-bake Cheesecake with strawberry sauce

2011-06-27T23:17:00.004+08:00

I’ve been staying off cheesecakes, red meat, fast food, fried stuff, nuts/seeds for 2 months, actually it’s 9 weeks! I’ve been counting ‘cos I’ve been craving cheesecakes! :-D You see my annual blood test was due. It may sounds like cheating…? ‘Starving’ myself silly from high-fatty food, junk food, permitting myself mostly veggies for lunch :-D My report shows liver and kidney functions fine,

Beef Pepper Rice @ Pepper Lunch

2011-06-24T23:19:00.006+08:00

We tried something new last weekend on a trip to Sunway Pyramid instead of our regular haunts. Pepper Lunch - an individual CIY (cook-it-yourself) teppanyaki meal. Our order of Curry Beef Pepper Rice comes with a hot iron plate with rice, slices of raw beef, topped with corn kernels, chopped spring onions and shredded cheese... and we requested for an added egg. CIY fascinated my son and

Summer’s best... simple pleasure

2011-06-20T23:03:00.014+08:00

Pan-scorched Corn Cob You can enjoy an indoor grilled corn cob without an outdoor BBQ any time. Here’s what I did. Fresh Corn cobsButter (I used Goldern Churn Butter)Salt (omit if using salted butter)Pepper (optional) 1. Remove husk and corn silk 2. Soak in plain water for 10mins and wash thoroughly3. Steam for 10-15mins4. Carefully remove them onto a plate5. Heat a