blueberry and banana muffins

Blueberries are not something that I buy often. As blueberries are imported from abroad, they tend to be on the pricey side. As such, I would buy fresh blueberries only when there is a promotion.

I have made jam using blueberries and it turned out very well. This time, I mixed fresh blueberries with banana and baked muffins.

It is important to drain the blueberries thoroughly after you have washed them otherwise there may be too much liquid added to the batter and it would affect the texture of the muffin.

When I baked the blueberry and banana muffins, Da and I were both surprised at how moist the texture of the muffin was. This trial and error recipe is definitely a keeper.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 large bananas (mashed)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg (lightly beaten)
50ml low fat milk
75g butter (softened)
125g fresh blueberries (washed and drained thoroughly)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Line the muffin pans with paper muffin cases. Set aside.

3. Sift the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

4. Cream the mashed bananas, brown sugar, egg, milk and butter in a bowl using a hand whisk until well combined. Stir in the blueberries using a wooden spatula.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Using a wooden spatula, fold all the ingredients together to form a wet batter. Do not over mix. The batter will be lumpy.

6. Spoon the batter into the paper muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.

achar (pickled vegetables)

"Achar" is a local word for pickled vegetables.

While many types of achar contain chilli paste, as I am not a chilli-eater, I prefer the type of achar that does not contain chilli. Having said this, there is a type of achar that I have tried that contains ground peanuts and is not very spicy although there is chilli paste in the achar (I am, by the way, looking for the recipe for this type of achar).

One of my favourite achar is served as a complimentary side dish at the chicken rice stall located at the food court in the basement of Katong Shopping Centre, which is near my mother's home. The achar comprises large chunks of cucumber, pineapple, red onion and green chilli with strips of carrot pickled with freshly squeezed lime juice and sugar (at least, this is what I have guessed based on what I have eaten. I doubt that the stall holder will share his "secret recipe" with me!).

My mother's eldest sister (Tuayi), my UT's wife (AH) and my UJ's wife (AJ) all have their own recipes for achar. AH did not make any achar for Chinese New Year this year but if I recall correctly, her version of achar is spicy because it contains chilli paste.

Tuayi's and AJ's respective versions of achar are quite similar (both versions do not contain chilli paste) and differ slightly in the ingredients that make up the achar.

Here is my version of achar that you may want to try. It is a modification of Tuayi's and AJ's versions of achar. I have not included the proportion for the vegetables because it is up to your preference. However, according to Tuayi, half of the achar should comprise the cucumber.

Ingredients

cucumber
pineapple
carrot
green chilli padi
green chilli
big red onion
big yellow onion
freshly squeezed lime juice (using small limes)
brown sugar
salt

Method

1. Quarter the cucumber and remove the centre portion. There is no necessity to remove the skin. Cut the cucumber into strips and sprinkle salt over the strips of cucumber. Set aside.

2. Remove the skin from the pineapple. Cut the pineapple into bite-sized pieces.

3. Remove the skin from the carrot. Halve the carrot into half and cut into strips.

4. Remove the seeds from the green chilli padi and the green chilli and cut into strips.

5. Remove the skin from the big red onion and big yellow onion and cut into strips.

6. Rinse the cucumber strips at least twice and drain away the water thoroughly. The cucumber is ready when it no longer tastes salty after rinsing.

7. Fill half of a large glass bottle with the cucumber. Fill the rest of the glass bottle with the pineapple, carrot, green chilli padi, green chilli, big red onion and big yellow onion. Add about 4 tbsp of brown sugar and the juice of 8 small limes and shake the bottle thoroughly.

8. Let the achar settle down. After a while, do a "taste test" and add more brown sugar and freshly squeezed lime juice to suit your taste.

9. Store the bottle of achar in the refrigerator.

Tips

1. To remove the "eye" of the pineapple, slice diagonally across the pineapple on each side of each "eye". This makes it easier to remove the eye and also creates grooves in the pineapple.

2. I would recommend that you buy Sarawak pineapple as it is sweeter.

3. It would be preferable to use normal cucumber instead of Japanese cucumbers or Thai baby cucumbers.

4. Choose carrots that are straight as they tend to be sweeter. Use the normal carrots instead of baby carrots.

5. Feel free to omit any of the vegetables that you do not like. I would, however, recommend that at the very least, you do not omit the cucumber, pineapple and green chilli.

6. The purpose of sprinkling the salt over the cucumber is to remove the water from the cucumber. It is important that the vegetables are dry when you are mixing the achar in the glass bottle otherwise the achar will be soggy.

chocolatey peanut butter cookies

When the godchildren came to our home on 17 June 2009 for a baking session, I had initially intended for them to try baking these chocolatey peanut butter cookies. There are very few steps to this recipe and the children would have been able to manage the recipe. However, as it turned out, we ended up baking other items and doing a bit of "wrestling" and "kung-fu fighting" (that is, 3 godchildren against 1 godmother! They called it "zap godma day", "tickle godma day", etc.... *grin*).

If you are attempting to bake these cookies with the aid of a pair of little hands, you may like to follow this recipe as I have typed it out. If, however, you are on your own and would like the taste of the chocolate chips to be more pronounced, I would suggest that you do not mix the chocolate chips with the rest of the ingredients and instead stir in the chocolate chips after you have mixed the rest of the ingredients. By mixing the chocolate chips with the rest of the ingredients, the cookies end up chocolatey throughout instead.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1 egg
1 tbsp low fat milk
1 1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl using an electric mixer.

3. Using a teaspoon, scoop the dough onto your palm and shape into a ball. Lightly flatten the ball before placing it on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

4. Bake for 15 minutes.

5. Let the cookies cool thoroughly before storing in an air-tight container.

tuna and egg casserole

The next time that you have leftover bread that you have kept in the refrigerator, instead of warming up the bread and eating it on its own, why not create a new dish using the leftover bread?

We had some leftover onion focaccia in the refrigerator. As I had baked a fresh batch of focaccia, I decided to use the leftover onion refrigerator and make a tuna and egg casserole.

INGREDIENTS

olive oil (for frying)

2 potatoes (diced)

1 large onion (diced)

2 sticks of celery (sliced)

1 carrot (diced)

4 pieces of mock crabstick (sliced)

1 rectangular fish cake (sliced)

1 can black pepper tuna

4 sliced leftover bread (I used onion focaccia)

1/2 cup water

5 eggs

1/2 tsp dried rosemary leaves

1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves

1/2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese

grated mozarella cheese (topping)

bacon bits (topping)

dried parsley flakes (topping)

METHOD

1. Fry the potatoes until golden brown. Set aside.

2. Stir-fry the onion, celery and carrots until they have softened.

3. Add the mock crab stick, fish cake, tuna and bread. Fry until the ingredients have cooked.

4. Add the water and continue frying for about 5 minutes.

5. Arrange the ingredients on a casserole dish.

6. In a bowl, beat the eggs and add the dried rosemary leaves, dried thyme leaves and grated cheddar cheese. Mix well.

7. Pour the egg mixture over the ingredients.

8. Cover the dish with the grated mozarella cheese and sprinkle the bacon bits and dried parsley flakes.

9. Bake in an oven preheated to 175 degrees celsius for 15 minutes.

baby potatoes

There is a programme on the Asian Food Channel called "Licence to Grill". In the programme, the host (Robert Rainford) will awe you with the countless ways to marinate food and barbeque them. Although my family and I do not eat barbequed food often, I find the programme very interesting and I pick up many tips from the programme.

From time to time, Jaime Oliver will, in his Naked Chef series, also show how to marinate and barbeque food.

My mother was so inspired by the programmes that she borrowed a recipe book on barbeque from the public library.

I was watching one of the episodes of The Naked Chef one night and Jaime Oliver marinated some baby potatoes, wrapped them in aluminium foil and barbequed them.

When the family of The Three Musketeers came to our home on 20 June 2009 for a BBQ feast, I decided to put to practice what I had learned from Jaime Oliver. The recipe in this post is my version of what I learned from the programme.

INGREDIENTS

1 packet of baby potatoes
freshly ground sea salt (to taste)
freshly ground mixed peppercorn (to taste)
olive oil
fresh rosemary leaves

METHOD

1. Wash the baby potatoes and scrub the jackets thoroughly. Do not remove the skins.

2. In a bowl, mix the freshly ground sea salt, freshly ground mixed peppercorn and olive oil. Do a taste test.

3. Add the rosemary leaves and baby potatoes and mix well.

4. Wrap the potato mixture with aluminium foil and leave for at least 30 minutes before barbequing.


TIP

When ET barbequed the baby potatoes, he did not place the aluminium foil above direct heat. Also, he rotated the direction of the aluminium foil every 15 minutes. After 1 hour, the baby potatoes were very soft and moist.

toufu with minced meat

When my brothers and I were growing up, my mother used to cook this signature dish of hers quite often. It is a simple dish of toufu but it is very delicious and appetising.

At the request of GP, I have asked my mother to share her trade secret, so here it is.... enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

cooking oil
2 toufu (deep fried)
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
300g minced pork (marinated in light sauce, pepper, sesame oil and cornstarch)
6 Chinese dried mushrooms (sliced)
1 red chilli (chopped)
2 tbsp fermented bean paste ("tau chiew")
hot water
sugar (to taste)

METHOD

1. Deep fry the whole toufu. Drain off the excess oil and place the toufu in a large bowl.

2. Fry the garlic in some oil until fragrant.

3. Add the minced pork, dried mushrooms and red chilli and fry until cooked.

4. Add the fermented bean paste and hot water. Add sugar to taste.

5. When the gravy has boiled, pour over the toufu.

malt cookies

I was surfing the internet one day and I came across the recipe for Horlicks Doggies Cookies in Happy Home Baker's blog. I was intrigued as there were no eggs nor sugar in the recipe.

I reviewed the recipe in the blog and made some modifications. The end result is what you see in the photographs in this blog. As you can probably tell, I am not very artistic by nature. I can barely make out what animal the cookies are supposed to be. Most of them are a bit out of shape. I would have ventured a guess and said that my cookies look like dogs. However, if you imagine the cookies in pink, you may see piglets instead. *grin*

INGREDIENTS

280g cake flour
35g corn flour
35g milk powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground almond
250g butter (softened)
120g malt drink powder (eg. Horlicks)
semi-sweet chocolate chips
chocolate rice
mixed cereal (eg. cornflakes with sliced almond and raisins)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 140 degrees celsius.

2. Sieve the cake flour, corn flour, milk powder, ground cinnamon and ground almond in a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and the malt drink powder until light and fluffy. Fold in the flour and mix until just combined.

4. Scoop a teaspoonful of the dough into the palm of your hand. Add 2 pieces of chocolate chips and roll into balls.

5. Flatten the balls slightly with the palm of your hand.

6. Decorate the flattened balls with the following:-

(a) chocolate rice - for the eyes

(b) chocolate chip - for the mouth

(c) cereal / sliced almond / raisins - for the ears

7. Bake for 25 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.

8. Let the cookies cool thoroughly before storing in an air-tight container.

TIP

If you were to add 2 chocolate chips to the dough, you may find that the cookies are not sweet enough if you have a sweet tooth. If you prefer that the cookies be sweeter, add 3 chocolate chips instead. I would not advise that you add more than 3 chocolate chips else it would be difficult to roll the dough into balls.

tom yam bee hoon (rice vermicelli)

This is my mother's recipe for tom yam rice vermicelli. When she fried these noodles on 24 June 2009, she did not have time to do some grocery shopping. As such, she made do with whatever ingredients she had in the larder and refrigerator. The ingredients in this recipe are as per what my mother cooked on that day. Do check out the tip at the end of this post for variations of the tom yam rice vermicelli.

INGREDIENTS

cooking oil
4 to 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
300g to 400g lean pork (sliced and marinated with light sauce, pepper, sesame oil and cornstarch)
12 dried Chinese mushrooms (soaked and sliced)
1 can button mushrooms (sliced)
4 tbsp tom yam paste
2 bowls hot water
sugar (to taste)
1 packet rice vermicelli (washed and drained - do not soak)
chilli dried prawns (for garnishing)

METHOD

1. Fry the garlic in some oil until fragrant.

2. Add the pork, Chinese mushrooms and button mushrooms and fry until cooked.

3. Add the tom yam paste and hot water and stir well. Add sugar to taste.

4. Add the rice vermicelli and mix with the ingredients using large chopsticks.

5. Serve onto plates and garnish with chilli dried prawns.

TIPS

Usually, when Tuayi and my mother fry tom yam rice vermicelli, they would add a lot of vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, green leafy vegetables. The inclusion of vegetables makes the dish sweeter. Tuayi is a vegetarian and hence, she would omit the pork and the dried prawns.

Hi Tuayi and Ma - any other tips to add?

raisin carrot cake

When I baked the raisin carrot cake that you see in this post, I had run out of brown sugar. I did, however, have an unopened packet of raw sugar. I have so far not used raw sugar in my baking so I decided to give it a try. If you prefer, you can stick to brown sugar.

I was pleased with the cake that was baked. It was moist and soft. I was tempted to reach for a second slice but I have to watch my waistline. *grin*

INGREDIENTS

2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tbsp ground peanuts

4 eggs

2 cups brown sugar / raw sugar

1 cup peanut oil

2 large raw carrots (grated)

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped almonds

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celsius.

2. Sift the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and ground peanuts in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs using a hand whisk. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the oil and mix well.

4. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and chopped almonds.

5. Fold in the flour mixture and mix until blended.

6. Pour the batter into a 9" springform pan that has been greased and floured.

7. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

slow cooker chicken stew

If you like to cook stews, I would recommend that you use a slow cooker (also known as crockpot) to cook the stew. The advantage is that it is like "walk-away cookware" - you place all the ingredients in the slow cooker, switch on the slow cooker and the stew is ready to be eaten in a few hours. The alternative would be to stand next to the stove, stirring the simmering stew every now and then.

As slow cookers tend to have slow cooking process (hence its name), if you are using a big slow cooker, it would be advisable to start your cooking process in the morning so that the vegetables can be soft enough to be eaten at dinnertime. The chicken need not be added in the morning. What I usually do is to marinate the chicken in the morning and add the chicken to the slow cooker only in the early afternoon. Otherwise, if the chicken is cooked for too long, it would either break up into small pieces or become hard.

INGREDIENTS (serves 8 to 10 persons)

2 cans of chicken stock
2 pieces of hot dog
1 green capsicum
2 large potatoes
2 large carrots
2 large yellow onions
4 sticks of celery
1 can of button mushroom
1 pkt of cherry tomatoes
1 can of cut young corn
1 can of green peas
salt and pepper to taste
8 to 10 pieces of chicken (marinated with Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce and freshly grated black peppercorn)
3 tbsp corn flour mixed with some water (to thicken the stew)

METHOD

1. Marinate the chicken pieces in a bowl and leave it in the refrigerator for several hours.

2. Pour the chicken stock into the slow cooker and switch on the slow cooker. Set the dial at "AUTO".

3. Cut the other ingredients to desired size and place them in the slow cooker.

4. When the chicken has been marinated for about 3 to 4 hours, add them to the slow cooker.

5. When the vegetables have softened, add some salt and pepper to taste.

6. Thicken the stew with the corn flour and water mixture.

7. Let the stew cook for another 10 minutes before serving.


TIP

It would be advisable to cut the ingredients (including the chicken) into big pieces. If the pieces are too small, they tend to break up during the cooking process.

otah lasagne

When time permits, I love to experiment with ingredients and create new dishes. Otah lasagne is what one would call "fusion food". Otah-otah is an Asian dish while lasagne is a western (Italian) dish.

Otah-otah (also known as otak-otak) is a type of fish cake. The town of Muar in Johor, Malaysia is very famous for their otah-otah. Otak-otak (鲤鱼包) is literally translated as "brain". This is because the dish is reddish in colour (due to the chilli) and the texture is soft and squishy, resembling brains. It can be eaten as a snack or with rice or bread as part of a meal.

To make otah lasagne, you can either buy ready-made frozen otah or make your own otah.

INGREDIENTS

2 pieces of otah
4 eggs
2 sticks of celery (sliced)
1/2 yellow onion (chopped)
2 pcs Chinese dried mushrooms (sliced)
salt and pepper to taste
mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 pc uncooked lasagne
bacon bits
dried parsley flakes

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Beat the otah with the eggs until well mixed. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

3. Boil the celery, onion and dried mushrooms. Drain off the water and add to the egg mixture. Mix well.

4. Ladle some of the egg mixture onto the bottom of a dry casserole dish until the bottom is entirely covered. Sprinkle a layer of mozzarella cheese. Place the uncooked lasagne on top of the mozzarella cheese layer. Add the remaining egg mixture and top with another layer of mozzarella cheese.

5. Sprinkle some bacon bits and dried parsley flakes.

6. Bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 30 minutes.

prawn salad with fruit cocktail

I have sampled the Very Tiki Prawn Salad several times and I enjoy it tremendously.

When Da and I had a gathering at our home recently for some friends, I decided to make the Very Tiki Prawn Salad. However, I was unfortunately not able to replicate the recipe wholesale as I was not able to obtain all the ingredients when I did my grocery shopping.

As a result, I have modified the recipe.

Here is my recipe for prawn salad with fruit cocktail.

Ingredients

20 medium sized prawns
1 can fruit cocktail
thousand island dressing
bacon bits

Method

1. Shell the prawns and de-vein them.

2. Slice the prawns cross-section.

3. Steam the prawns till they are cooked. Alternatively, you can cook the prawns in boiling water. Set aside the prawns.

4. Drain the syrup from the fruit cocktail and arrange the fruit cocktail in a round dish.

5. Add the steamed / boiled prawns on top of the fruit cocktail.

6. Liberally pour thousand island dressing over the prawn and fruit cocktail.

7. Sprinkle with a generous amount of bacon bits.

scottish shortbread

I like to eat Scottish shortbread that melts in the mouth. I do, however, have one grouse - the butter content is very high and as such, it is sinfully buttery but utterly bad for one's waistline.

If you are not watching your diet, do give this recipe a try. Even if you are watching your diet, you may want to try out this recipe once in a while. The cookies melt in your mouth and are very delicious.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp water
450g butter (softened)
4 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 135 degrees celsius.

2. Grease and flour a 9" x 12" baking tray. Set aside.

3. Sift the plain flour, ground cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

4. Place the brown sugar in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the sugar with the water. Add the butter and mix well.

5. Fold in the flour mixture and mix until the flour is blended in.

6. Press the dough into the baking tray and spread out until the dough covers the entire baking tray.

7. Using a fork, poke holes into the dough every inch or so.

8. Bake for 1 hour.

9. Remove the baking tray and the cookies into squares using a pizza cutter.

10. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the cookies are light golden brown.

11. Let the cookies cool thoroughly before storing them in an airtight container.

green tea banana and prune cake

When Da and I had dinner guests (that is, the family of the Three Musketeers and Da's cousin, MT) at our home on Valentine's Day this year, I decided to bake a cake because Tau Suan's birthday was just around the corner and we would probably not be able to meet him on the actual day (which fell on 19 February 2009).

I was debating what cake to bake when I saw an overipe banana on top of our microwave oven. I had bought the banana a few days before that, intending to snack on it in the evening at work but I ended up bringing the banana home.

When you bake banana cakes or banana muffins or fry banana fritters, it is advisable to use overripe bananas as they are sweeter and softer in texture. What you can do is to freeze the bananas when they are overripe and take them out from the freezer when you need to use them. The skin may turn black when the banana becomes overripe but you will still be able to use the banana in your baking or cooking.

As there were 9 of us for dinner and I only had one banana, I baked a green tea banana and prune cake in a 9" square baking pan.

Ingredients

2 tbsp matcha (green tea powder)

200g wholemeal flour

200g plain flour

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

150g butter (softened)

100g brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup ground almond

200g banana (mashed)

200g pitted prunes (cut into small pieces)

2 tsp banana essence

cinnamon sugar (for the topping)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease and line a 9" square baking pan with baking paper. Set aside.

3. Sift the matcha, wholemeal flour, plain flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Set aside.

4. Whisk the butter and sugar using an electric mixer. Beat 1 egg, add it to the mixture and whisk well at low speed. Repeat with the other egg.

5. Add the ground cinnamon, ground almond, mashed banana, pitted prunes and banana essence. Whisk at low speed.

6. Fold in the flour mixture and mix well.

7. Pour into the prepared baking pan.

8. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the entire top portion of the batter.

9. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Tips

1. The cake will taste "nutty" due to the wholemeal flour.

2. Turn your cake into a dessert by placing slices of the cake in a bowl and topping with cookies and cream ice cream. Sprinkle raisins on top.