Fruit Cake

I never like fruit cake but this time round I actually tried it when Deborah made it for the family.  The taste was just nice and I really love it. So of course I found out how to make it of course. I made this for the Spring gathering at my place, I gave 2 to the Norwegian house mates to try. It was right out from the oven but they just pop it into their mouth and love it.When I came down the second time for the second tray, I gave them again since they love it so much. I had my go after it was cool then realised that the cake was too sweet for me but I guessed they loved sweet stuffs. I guess I need to cut back on the sugar as I added more raisin which is why the cake was so sweet but is really up to individual. I cut from 1/2 cup sugar to 1/3cup sugar.

Ingredient:

• 1/2 Cup       Shredded coconut
• 1 1/2 Cup    Self-Raising Flour
• 1/2 Cup       Raisin
• 1/3 Cup       Sugar
• 125gm          Butter
• 2 tbsp          Golden syrup
• 1                  Egg ( Beaten)

Methods:

1. Melt the butter with sugar and the syrup.
2. When it cool add in the beaten egg. Mix it well.
3. Add in the Self-raising flour.
4. Then add in the remaining dry ingredients.
5. Scope 1 tpsn of the mixture in the cupcake
6. Bake at 175deg for 15mins or till top golden brown.

           

                 

Fruit cake

Wishing all a Happy New Year. A better year ahead. Be all in great health and wealth.Huat ah.

Scone

Had this the first time at my Aunt place when I first visited Brissy in 1996. Never knew that this is so easy and so nice to eat it warm with butter or strawberry jam. Ever since I came back to do my studies, did not get a chance to eat Aunt's scone.Then when I went over to the house for lunch and i saw the recipe file which my aunt kept all her recipes. Jot it down and learnt to make it. Since never seen my Aunt making it before so not very sure what is it like. When I mixed everything , it seem very moist not sure if that is right so added more flour into it and knead it a little only later Aunt told me not to knead as the scone will out to be hard like a rock. So from experience, I learnt my mistake and now back on the track.

Ingredients:

• 250gm          Butter
• 5Cups          Self-raising Flour
• 2 1/2 Cups   Milk
• 1/4Tsp         Salt

Methods:

1. In a mixing bowl put in the flour then the butter, using rubbing in method.
2. Run in the butter into the flour with the finger tip, till it mixed even with no lumps.
3. Make a hole in the middle of the mixture then pour in the milk.
4. Stir it slowly till well mixed, if too wet sprinkle some flour. It has got to be moist.
5. Flour the board and cut it into shape.
6. Preheat the oven at 200 deg.
7. Bake it for 12-15mins or till slightly brown.

The tip for this is DO NOT KNEAD the dough.After mixing all the ingredients, just scope it out and place it on the floured board. Pat both hand with some flour and spread out the dough.

Xuan pan zi - Abacus beads

One day as usual calling my Mom to find how about her well being. Then she told me she saw this cooking programme teaching how to make Hakka dish 'Xuan pan zi' abacus. She did tried making it for Granny and the rest to try and they all loved it. I first tried this dish was when I was in Sec school when I went to Jessica place at Tanjong Rhu to play maijong. Those days whenever free after school we will be finding people to play maijong, so carefree life man. Then there was this once when we were there, I think her family members just finished praying to the ancestor. So we were offered this delicious Hakka food, to my surprise I was impressed by the outlook of it and decided to have a go for it. It was so nice and wonder where in Singapore can I find this dish. Been searching for this for a while and finally found it at Bugis street. So every time when I went to Bugis, I will get a box of it but its so expensive and oily.

Been here for a while , really missed it a lot so when Mom mention that she knew how to make it I was really overjoyed.

Ingredients:

• 400gm    Taro (Peeled)
• 150gm     Tapioca Flour
• 200gm    Mince pork
• 50gm       Dried Shrimp (Soaked for 45mins)
• 30gm       Black Fungus (Soaked for 10-15mins)
• 6-8         Shiitake mushroom (Soaked for 45mins)
• 1Tbsp      Garlic (Chopped finely)
• 2Tbsp     Oil
• 1Tsp        Dark Soy Sauce
• 3Tsp       White pepper

Methods:

1. Sliced up all the soaked ingredients.
2. Steamed the taro for 30-40mins.
3. Mashed it whilst still hot till a smooth paste.
4. Slowly add the tapioca flour and knead it into a dough.
5. Rolled it into a long dough, cut it up into even small size.
6. Roll each into a small ball and depress in the middle.
7. Bring a pot of water to boil and drop each beads into it.
8. Beads are ready once it float to the surface.
9. Get ready a bowl of cold water
10. Scoped it up and drain well. 
11. Pour into the bowl of cold water for 3-5mins so that will get the chewy texture.
12. Heat up the pan with oil and fry the garlic.
13. Add in the mince pork and mushroom.
14. Fry for 5mins or till the mince are cooked
15. Then add in the dark sauce and pepper.
16. Mixture well and add in the beads.
17. Fry for another 5mins and serve when hot.

Banana Cake

This recipe was taken off Mrs Leong's cookbook. As my house mate Cindy was asking me about banana cake so I decided to try this out. The problem with this is, in the book it did not mention how long or when do I stop whisking the eggs. So I worked it myself and still baked a delicious banana cake..

Ingredients:

• 8-10 Small       Bananas
• 440gms           Butter
• 4Tbsp             Condensed Milk
• 440gms           Castor Sugar
• 1/2 Tsp           Salt
• 1 Tsp               Vanilla Essence
• 9                      Eggs
• 340gms           Self-raising flour ( Sifted)

Methods:

1. Mash the banana with a fork
2. Cream the butter, condensed milk and 220gms sugar for 5 mins
3. Add Salt and vanilla essence.
4. In a clean mixing bowl, whisk eggs with 220gms sugar till thick and creamy that is when all the bubbles are gone.
5. Fold in 1 cup of the egg mixture to the creamed butter till well mixed.
6. Add the rest of the egg mixture, mashed bananas and lastly the sifted flour.
7. Stir as lightly as possible so as not to input more air into it.
8. Preheat the oven at 165deg.
9. Pour into a greased cake tin and bake it in oven for 1-1 1/4 hours.

Salmon & mushroom Baked rice

I missed the salmon baked rice from Swenson so much that I seriously cannot take it anymore till i went online to search for the recipe but very disappointed not much information on it.Came across one that was close but still not the one so I did some experiment on it. First try failed as the taste  of the rice is too plain and Jing jing enlighten me saying maybe the rice can be like those you find from Indian shop maybe yellow rice, and butter rice came to my mind straight. So on my second attempt, with a cup of cooked rice I stirred fried again with garlic and butter, it tasted so much better. Also i did not add much tomato paste on my first attempt therefore it seem dry. So on the second attempt , I add more paste and added it to the mushroom over the heat for 5 mins.This really make the mushroom much tastier.and with the top I had the egg mixed with the cheese. Overall on my second attempt the taste was there but still not like what I wanted.

So third attempt was a must, this time round I fried the rice grain with garlic, butter and salt then cooked the rice like normal.. When the rice was cooked, the smell of the rice was heaven but when tasted kind of disappointed a little as it was not tasty enough lack of butter. With the cooked rice, I stirred it with more salt, butter and garlic to get the right taste.With the top, this time round I did a change by adding the egg to the salmon.Close to perfection except for the rice. Never say die so finally i got the rice right so here you go

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup             Rice
• 20-25gm       Butter
• 3/4 Tsp        Salt
• 2 Tsp            Garlic (Chopped)
• 6-8               Mushroom (Sliced)
• 1 Tbsp           Oil
• 4-6 Tbsp       Tomato paste
• 1 1/4 Cup       Water
• 150 gm           Salmon slices
• 1                     Egg (Beaten)
• 1/2 Cup           Shredded Cheese
• 1/4 Tsp            Pepepr

Methods:

1. For the rice, wash it clean.
2. Then heat up the pan and add in the butter then garlic.
3. Till the butter fully melted add in the washed rice grain.
4. Stir fried it for a min or two then add salt and pepper.
5. Once ready pour it into the rice cooker.
6. Add in 1 Cup of water like cooking normal rice.
7. Place the cooked rice in a baking dish.
8. Then for the mushroom, add the oil to a pan then stirred fried it till cook.
9. Then add in the tomato paste and the remaining water.
10. Till the mixture not too watery or dry.
11. Pour it over the rice.
12. Then mix the salmon and the egg together.
13. Pour it over the mushroom, then add the cheese on top.
14. Preheat the oven to 200deg
15. Then put into the oven for 20-25mins or till the top turn golden brown.

Looks like many steps but once u do it, its no problem already. Really very easy and simple.The most important thing is very nice.

Kueh Sarlat

This kuih kuih is one of my Mummy favorite, the top part is egg custard and the bottom part is savory with the glutinous rice. I used to think is kind of hard to make but since Deborah has got a short cut of making it that was actually using microwave. Which is just cook the rice first then when ready pour in the top part and mircowave for 10mins I think and you will get your kuih kuih. Since I do not really like the idea of using the mircowave so I did it the long way through steaming. I got all the direction on how to make this but I left out the final part which was how long does it take to steam the custard. I took it out too early and was very watery so I got to re-steam it again. The custard was still great and later I found out the timing to steam the kueh kueh.

Ingredients:

Bottom:

• 2 Cups       Glutinous rice (Soaked overnight)
• 1 Can          Coconut cream
• 1 Tbsp       Sugar
• 1 Tsp         Salt

Top:

• 5                Eggs (Beaten)
• 1 Can          Coconut cream
• 1 Cup          Sugar
• 1/4 Tsp      Pandan paste
• 1/2 Tsp      Salt
• 2 Tbsp        Rice Flour

Methods:

1. Steamed the rice for 7-10mins.
2. Then add the salt and 1/2 cup of coconut cream. Mix it well.
3. Steamed for another 5-7mins.
4. Then add the sugar and the remaining coconut cream.
5. Mixed the ingredient for the top throughly.
6. Strained the mixture onto the rice.
7. Steamed for 30 - 45mins or check to see if the custard set.

Kuih Sarlat

Sushi

There are many sushi stores here but then at times they do not taste as great and the price a bit steep. So ever since Sue found the best way to cook the rice, I make my own sushi. Homemade sushi taste alway the best with fresh ingredients and eating it fresh. Kevin loved it when he first tried my sushi when I made it for the temple offering. At time he will ask if I made it and it seem like the one that his mom made was hard unlike mine.

Ingredients:

Filling

• 1 Cucumber (stripe)
• 100 gm Seafood mix (Crabmeat)
• Omelette
• Rice
• Seaweeds
• Mayonnaise 

- Rice

• 1 Cup     Rice (Japanese rice or Medium grains rice)
• 1 Cup     Water
• 2 Tbsp    Sugar
• 2 Tbsp    Vinegar
• 1 tsp        Salt

Methods:

1. Wash the grains, and cook it with proportion of water.
2. Allow it to stand to cool.
3. Then mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl.
4. Put it into the rice and mix it well.

- Omelette:

• 2 Eggs
• 2tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp plain flour
• 1/4tsp salt

Methods:

1. To fry the omelette, firstly mix all the ingredients and then sieve it.
2. Pour into a non-stick pan, turn it over when one side is cooked.
3. Take it out and allow it to cool.

A wise advice place the bamboo mat in a plastic bag so that we can save on the washing. Like when I first did it, rice every where on the bamboo and make it so hard to clean especially those stuck in between the gap.

Methods:

1. Place a sheet of seaweed on the mat with the shorter side facing you.
2. Scope some rice onto the seaweed and use a spoon to spread the rice and by dipping the spoon into water will help to spread it smoothly.
3. Spread till about half of the sheet then spread the mayonnaise across.
4. Then place the omelette, cucumber and seafood mix.
5. Hold it firm and roll it over.
6. Grip it tight each time you roll it.
7. Alway damp the knife before cutting the sushi to prevent the rice from sticking to it.

California Sushi

Potato salad

Once we had this BBQ for the whole house and each suppose to make or buy something. So my English house mate, Kim decided to make potato salad for us. When I got my first try of it, it was really great and when I wanted to get more so sad no more left. This will make me remember her for imparting her recipe to me. I made this for my big birthday bbq and Auntie Theresa was impressed with it. For last year X'mas, she specifically  asked me to make this. She tried so many potato salad and felt that this is really nice so folks here you are. For the original one, Kim only use the normal mayonnaise but is too sour for me so I will add in Japanese mayonnaise which is more on the sweet side. Just add whatever to suit your taste. As this is only a rough estimation

Ingredients:

• 7-8              Small washed Potatoes
• 1                  Tomato (Deseed and diced small)
• 1 Cup            Cucumber (diced)
• 1/2 Cup        Gherkins (diced)
• 1Tsp             English mustard
• 6Tbsp          Japanese Mayonnaise
• 3Tbsp          Mayonnaise
• 1/2Tsp         Salt
• 1/2Tsp         White pepper

Methods:

1. Boiled the potatoes for 10mins or till the fork able to go through easily.
2. Peeled off the skin and mashed it into chucks.
3. Add in the diced cucumber, tomato and gherkins.
4. Add in the english mustard and mayonnaise.
5. Mix it well and add salt and pepper.

Eggplant with mince

Me a person who do not really eat eggplants one before coming here but then I learnt to explore more when staying with different people. So my first try was once at a gathering and is cooked with samba chill, the first bite was great and I can not have enough of it. Then my house mate cooked another version one which is non spicy and with tian main jiang (sweet sauce). Once again I love the way the eggplants being cook, I guess is because the eggplants was cooked till very soft and can taste the sweetness of it too. My house mate showed me another way of making it as well which is by deep frying it. I call this smiling eggplant.

Ingredients:

• 500gm      Eggplant
• 250gm      Mince meat
• 2tsp          Sesame oil
• 2tsp          Hua tiao jiu
• 2tbsp        Light soy sauce
• 1/4tsp       Pepper
• 2 Cups      Oil ( Deep frying)

Batter:

• 8tbsp       Self raising flour
• 4tbsp       Plain flour
• 1tsp         Light soy sauce
• 1tsp         Salt
• 1 cup        Water

Methods:

1. Mix the mince meat with the remaining ingredients and set aside.
2. Cut the eggplant with about 0.8 ~ 1cm thickness then into half like a semi circle.
3. Place it on the table and cut into half but be careful not till the end.
4. Fill each half with the mince mixture.
5. Mix up all the ingredients for the batter.
6. Coat the eggplant with self-raising flour.
7. Then dip it into the batter and put straight into pot of oil.
8. Take it when it turns golden brown.

Begedil ( Mashed potato)

This is my favorite during Secondary Sch time. Is a must to have this with Mee soto, at times if I'm late got to eat Mee soto without it. Then this actually was sold at most Malay food stall, especially the one my parents like to go to where they sell great Malay mix rice and lontong. Ever since young, my parents can eat those for breakfast but not me to have that for breakfast. Quite luckily for me, when I was studying in TP, the malay stall in Design canteen sell this as well, every time when i went over to have my lunch this will alway be one of them for my mix rice. So I only get to eat this from outside but I had a great house mate Nora, one day she made this and i was so excited. The taste was so great and immediately asked for the recipe.

Since then when I stayed in Jane street, this seem to be my signature dish  for gathering. So lets enjoy it ok

Ingredients:

• 700gm      Potatoes
• 350gm      Lamb mince
• 2tsp          Salt
• 1/4 tsp      Pepper
• 1/2tsp       Nutmeg
• 4-6 tbsp   Fried shallot
• 1              Egg wash
• 2Tspn      Oil
• 2 Cups     Oil (Deep fry)

Methods:

1. Boiled the potatoes till cooked and mashed it till chunky.
2. Put it aside to cool.
3. Heat up the pan with oil and add in the lamb mince.
4. Drain away the excess oil.
5. Add in the salt and pepper and nutmeg .Mix it well
6. Take it out and mix it with the potatoes.
7. Add in the fried shallot.
8. Scope out with a dessert spoon and roll it into a ball, then flatten it a little.
9. Each weighting 26-30gm and able to make 32.
10. Before frying dip it into a beaten egg as a wash.
11. Put it straight into the pot of hot oil.
12. Take it out when it turns brown.

This dish looks easy but is kind of oily so alway remember to drain it on a strainer and on kitchen towel to absorb more oil out of it. The recipe for this suit my taste so add what ever you want to suit your own taste.