Claypot Rice

I love Daiso!!! I was still thinking of what to cook for dinner until i saw the pretty claypots in Daiso. This is how claypot rice should be made, cook the rice raw in the claypot with all the ingredients later, and thats how u get the cripsy burnt rice at the bottom. Something you can never get from cooking rice in the rice cooker. Claypot rice home-made, i like, i like!! =D

Nonya Pineapple Tarts

AHHHHHHHH!!! I am so happy that i can actually bake!!! =D I don’t know what got into me to make me wanna bake pineapple tarts, it must have been the influence of the chinese new year goodies! But whatevr it is, im glad i gave it a shot cause now i finally know that i can bake!! I’m ADDICTED to baking!!!!

I saw that they were selling ready-made pineapple paste, so my mommy asked me to use that. She was pretty skepyical about me making it when i was in the “anything, anyhow” experimenting mood. Anyways,  I was thinking that since i already decided to bake, why not try my best to make everything myself. Furthermore, the super pale yellow colour of the ready-made paste really looks awful. So, i bagged 2 honey pineapples home and got my mom to skin it for me. It’s an irony how a cook like me is actually afraid of thorns, scales, hot oil, knife and fire. Haha! I’m too accident-prone i guess!

But anyways, i know the result is not pretty, but really, everyone who tried says it super delicious!!! I think after i improve on the outlook, i can really take orders for chinese new year already! Foe now, my mommy has ordered form me already =DDD

Tobanjyan Chicken and Sambal Cuttlefish

Tobanjyan and manyyy other suaces. I really looooooove this one. Really LOVE!!! I can’t even describe how it tastes, but just definitely something special, never tasted before and yummyyyyyyy!!! I feel especially acheived when my fussy and cute mother kept praising and complimenting me. Heh. She never ever feeds my ego like that.

I wish i can let u guys try it for yourself!

The classic sambal dish that got my 80 year old grandma addicted. We just love the texture of cured squid/cuttlefish. Very crunchy!!

Duck Noodles

Pork Goulash

Merry Xmas!! My xmas was a simple one with a home cooked xmas dinner. I don’t really celebrate xmas, prolly because i am not into any festive celebrations that much. Of course i do celebrate some festivals symbolically, but in my eart, everyday is christmas, everyday is my birthday, evryday is a wonderful and happy day =)

I am glad i tried something new this christmas which is Escargots and Goulash. I was very excited about making Hummus too but i had serious problems in finding the raw ingredients.I have never eaten goulash before but i have roughly seen how its made some years ago. It is known to some as curry of the west, but besides the colour, there is no other similarities in my opinion. Goulash is bascially a meat stew, and i chose a pretty piece of pork belly for mine. It’s kinda difficult to dexcribe how it tastes like, but the best part is how tenderrrrr and soft the meat is. it just simply breaks apart when you put your fork into it, and melts instantly in your mouth. The meat is absorbed the essence of the soup, while the soup is made reall fragrant by the pork. they make a great match and enhance the taste of each other. besides the taste of the meat, the stew has a nice blend of paprika, tomatoes, potatoes and herbs.

Escargots baked in butter and garlic sauce

Yes Escargots! Yes Snails!! Mushrooms, cheese, escargots, butter, garlic and herbs, isn’t it just the perfect combi?!!

Sambal Belachan Squid + Black Pepper Prawns

Was planning to cook ceareal prawns but the very last minute realised that i forgot to buy butter!! =((( Saw some coarse black pepper lying around so just make do with this dish. but damn, i like black pepper prawns better now!!

The uncle was dang nice to pluck out all the legs from the squid for me! I wonder what did he do with the squid body.. hahahaha!

Bolognese Baked Rice

Oxtail Stew

Okay the rave about Oxtail Stews is definitely for some thing. I can’t believe ithis is only my first time trying it and all that i missed out all these years! And best yet, i cooked it without even knowing how it should taste like! haha!  Lotsa and lotsa herbs and spices and brew for 4 hours! I didn’t even add any salt to taste cos it already tastes so amzing! Gosh, i wanna make it again today, it’s sooooooo yummylicious!!!!

Carrot Cake in Hong Kong Style

In Singapore, our local carrot cakes are much harder, and is plain, you can find some dried shrimps in your cake if you are lucky. This is gotta be some rare stuff in SIngapore! Hong Kong carrot cakes are special as it ismuch softer, uses premium ingredients in the making, and is usually topped with sauces. I remember eating a similar one at Sunshine Plaza, and it was advertised as the only Hong Kong style carrot cake and it cost $5 for a pathetic slice. Honestly, if i ever get to sell this, they can forget about being the “only one”, and taste wise, i and my entire family swear that mine is wayyyy better!!! =DD

That’s most prolly because i was generous in my ingredients, and i used a secret soup base instead of plain water as opposed to what everyone does. I actually have no idea how i made this all by myself, with no recipe nor help. Everything was done by intuition and i am extremely proud of myself. Imagine, radish, chinese sausage, scallops, dried shrimps being steamed to perfection in a secret soup base, topped with home-made suace, this is what you get!!!

Another way of eating this would be with sambal chilli..

Spicy Miso Ramen

My first try in making Ramen, and only few tries in Japanese Cuisine. I believe besides the noodles, the soup is the most important thing to decide if this dish makes the grade or not. Sadly, you cannot taste good ramen in Singapore, as all they know is Miso and LOTS of Ajinomoto, or best yet instant soup!! I think it takes a lot more passion and effort to make a good soup base, rather than just spamming MSG and insant stuff with lots of preservatives. As usual, i kept my record clean in using MSG. I insist on not using MSG for any of my dishes. Besides health reasons, i do think that using MSG is like a shortcut or “cheating” in cooking. HAHA!

I would say that i got the Japanese boy’s thumbs up for this one again =)) Most people only uses Miso for the soup, but i found it a tad too bland and simple. Thus, i added in bones, melted mushrooms, and many different kinds of Japanese sauces and brewed for a few hours. The last touch was some tabasco/chilli oil to add a tinge of spiciness to the dish.

Give me a few more tries, i am sure i can perfect the recipe =DDD

Fried Hokkien Mee (Fried Prawn Noodles)

As i was saying, i was gonna use the leftover soup i brewed the previous day to cook Hokkien Mee! You can tell from the picture that my noodles are of a different colour, like orangy?? That’s because my soup was very very thick and well brewed. While in most hawkers, it’s a very plain yellow/white colour.

It was nice seeing how the noodles absorb all the goodness of the soup into them. It was even nicer when you eat the noodles, and feel the prawny goodness burst with flavour in your mouth! Orgasmic!!!! Haha!

Spicy Dry Prawn Noodles + Soup Prawn Noodles

This is one dish that seriously gives me the URGE to open a restaurant. It is seriously GOOOOOOODDDD!!!! Sambal Belachan + Special Sauce + Secret Receipe Prawn Soup = HEAVENLY STUFFFFFFF!! It’s one of the dishes that i take the most pride in. I wished i could describe/share with you how it tastes like!

Gosh, i am drowning myself in the fantasy of owning my restaurant now.. Damn, that will be awesome! =DDD

My secret recipe soup that took me four hours to brew.. This 2 dishes is not easy to make at all. i am having a backache now from all the preparation. haha! I am almost 100% sure nobody in Singapore at least makes prawn mee like that. YUMMMMSSSS!!

Best yet, the leftover soup will be used to make fried hokkien noodles tomorrow!! =DDD

Thai Green Curry

I know i have blogged about this dish before, but man, this time i made it at home, with my own blender!!! I kitchen is finally completed with it! =DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Crispy Garlic Prawns

Initially, i was planning to cook cereal/oats prawns, but i realised i forgot to but oats! hahah. But damn, im glad i forgot! Cereal prawns is too common. I seriously love this one! So much that, all of us (including my 80 year old grandma) ate the whole prawn including the head, shell, everything! it’s so dang crispy!!

Most peoplejust spam the garlic, and it just tastes so garlicky, and nothing else! I believe you’ve gotta balance it out with some sweetness, so that the garlic taste is not too overwhelming.

The other 2 dishes were kailan stems and tom yum sutchi fish.. too lazy to blog bout that! hahah!

Green Nasi Lemak + Red Wine and Herbs Chicken Stew

I was pretty tired of the usual nasi lemak (coconut rice) that i make, so gave my blender another chance to make me happy =DDD It tasted very different from the white nasi lemak, its hard to tell you the difference, but all i can say is that i will choose this over that anyday =)

I am actually pretty amused when people around me thought i added green colouring into the rice!! I mean, isn’t it very strange to add food colourings into rice? It doesn’t add on any flavour, but after eating my own,  i can bet most hawkers simply just use food colouring to make their nasi lemak green!!

Red wine!!! one of my best friends in cooking!! this time i marinated the chicken for a looong time so that it get tenderised. It takes about 1 hour for marinates to get into the meat, but 24 hours for the marinate to tenderise the meat. Well, i really looove how the red wine lingers in your mouth, with a tinge of the herbs and spices. I’m glad my “very chinese” mom and grandma loves it! it’s their first time eating anything with redwine.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

From the sauce, to the rice, to the chicken and the cute thai mini cucumbers, i truly enjoyed myself in exploring this delectable dish.I love to dip the cucumbers and the smooth chicken skin in ths sauce. It’s dang ADDICTIVE i swear!!!

Hainanese Chicken Rice sure has this facade of being “difficult and troublesome to cook”. Thus, i wasn’t very confident about cooking it all these while and just left it in my to-cook-list. But damn! i was sooo wrong! It’s really simple to make and i only took an hour or so (okay not THAT simple so i will put the difficulty level as moderate). One sure thing i’ve learnt its that we should be adventurous in cooking and not be afraid of failures, many a times, you will be surprised with what you can actually do.

For me, i am extremely proud of myself that i can make chicken rice from scratch on my first attempt without any recipes, help whatsoever! it’s purely from the memory of my fave chicken rice and guessing how its made. I like the process of thinking back how it tastes, and dissecting each and every kind of ingredients used. Okay, i actually do that alll the time and its not like its a big deal but I guess i feel UNUSALLY HAPPY largely because i really looooooove to eat this dish and i always thought i wouldn’t be good enough to make it =D

Well  lastly, if you are those people that uses ready-made-pastes/mixes/powder etc for any kinda dish, take my advice, dump them and challenge yourself to making everything from scratch! you will be exceedingly satisfied =D

Pork in Prawn Paste and Chilli

Shoulder butt meat definitely has to be the best! It’s soft, tender, smooth and with a tinge of fats holding the meat together. LOVE IT! Oh yes, and this would go sooooooo dang well with Basil!!! DANG IT!!! Hate my supermart!!! =(((

Kang Kong

I was trying to imitate the “morning glory” i had in Bangkok last week (pic below). Okay, pardon the gang’s ignorance, we just realised Morning Glory = Kang Kong = Water Spinach! Lol!! I thought this was new and simple dish for me to try out as i’m truly sick of sambal kang kong. Oh yes, talking abt sambal kang kong, how on earth can you sell a plate of vegetables in local coffee shops @ SGD$8-12???!!! And the best part is, it’s not even nice!!! I only cooked half the packet i bought in the supermarket for $0.90 a pack!

Well, this is Singapore, everything is expensive, period.

Okay back to the dish, we all think mine tasted almost exactly the same. Just that the one in Bkk tasted a tad too hard for my liking. But thanks to bkk, i’ve got a long list of newly inspired dish tht i’m gonna try out! =DDD

Braised Mushroom in Spicy Black Bean Sauce

I think Mushrooms  goes perfect with Sea Cucumber in black oyster gravy! But since i do not have sea cucumbers, i’ve gotta make do with this. I think it was pretty good but still prefer it with sea cucumber! Heh! Be adventurous and you are definitely in for surprises!!

Assam Squid (Squid in Tamarind Sauce)

Black Pepper Beef Glass Noodles

Another simple dish with cooking time of prolly only 5 minutes. Trust me, black pepper sauce goes extremely well with glass noodles (tang hoon). Seafood like tiger prawns and crayfish is excellent as well. Beef isjust a personal preference =)

Sambal Fried Rice with Chicken Gizzards

It was a simple dish for a lazy day that i don’t really wanna head out to do grocery shopping. I’m really sick of the usual eggy fried rice with hotdogs, peas and stuff. I just opened the fridge to see what i’ve got and whipped up this dish. I’m a hugeeee fan of chicken gizzards, and all fans should know that they go extremely well with sambal sauce. However, it’s hard to find people who can appreciate this little gem (at least to me). A big packet only cost $0.90 in the supermarket, and its wayyyy cheaper in the wet market. You can even get it free sometimes! haha!

Well, all in all, chicken gizzards + tofu fishcake + sambal sauce = yummyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)))

Japanese Beef Curry Soba and Curry Rice

I loooove beef, i love curry and i loooove soba noodles.. Japanese curry is not my fave but somehow it tastes really good if you eat it once in awhile. I love it creamy but the sad thing is you always get instant and diluted curry almost everywhere. Actually what’s so difficult? Just add lesser broth! it’s one of the simplest dishes in Japanese cuisine.. My first try and looks like i got the Japanese boy’s thumbs up for it. =DDD

Japanese Curry Rice.. Not for me, i’m on a diet! =D

Appetisers: Grilled Shitake with home-made dipping sauce.. I am a mushroom lover <33333333!!!!!!!

Satay Burgers

Another of my own fusion dishes. Curry flavoured pork patties, with sambal sauce, satay sauce and rice cakes (kueh tupat), all home-made by myself as usual. It was really fun making my first satay sauce and curry flavoured patties =DD It was a daring attempt and surprisingly everything went perfectly together!!Especially the rice cake and sambal that gave the burger a refreshing twist!

I wished i could type more and resize the pictures properly but it’s wayyy past my bedtime. I have been sleeping at 10pm and waking up at 630am. Dead tired by now… Goodnight everyone!!

Yaki Soba (Japanese Fried Noodles)

I’m not a big fan of cooking Japanese food as if you realise, Japanese cuisine mainly consist of either sashimi and tempura which isn’t too much of my kinda cooking style. I can’t cook without my home-made sauces, herbs and spices. But one pretty simple and yummy dish is Yaki Soba. I decided to make this for breakfast as im pretty much out of groceries and i had bull dog sauce and japanese mayo in my fridge. Though the taste is still a bingo (you can’t go wrong with bulldog sauce), i’m not very satisfied as it’s not 100% authentic because:

1) i made this at 7am in the morning

2) i do not have enough eggs

3) i do not have cabbage

4) i do not have a frying pan

It would have been perfect with the above, but it was still a nice breakfast to start the day =))

*frying pan and blender alert!!! I can’t make my prawn mee soup and hokkien mee without the blender!!!!!!!

Chicken Breast Steak in Red Wine sauce

In bid of a healthier lifestyle as everyone is putting on weight, I’ve decided to become even more health consious. Everyone at home hatesssss chicken breast as it is always dry, hard and tasteless. Chicken breast is a good choice for a healthier diet. High in protein, low in fat = pertfect!! Thus, i’m bent on changing the opinion of people who hates chicken breast. If you put in effort, chicken breast can be very tasty and tender as well!!

I fried the marinated and seasoned chicken breast till golden brown in extra virgin olive oil. Then top it with a thin slice of ham and cheese, then bake. Next, it will have to be my specially made red wine sauce that goes uber well with any meat. Ready to serve!!

Dinner was guilt-free!!! =DD

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Was at Joel and Siya’s place and they told me they had a chicken that they don’t know what to do with. Have been procrasinating about this dish for a long time, and i decided to go ahead with it though i have not cooked it before. I find no kick in using ready-made suaces, thus i decided to be more ambituous and make my very own thai green curry paste from scratch!! It was alot of fun making the paste, with the roasted spices, fresh green chilli padis and everything from scratch. I love the sense of achievement that i get when i make everything myself!!!! =DDDDDDDDD

It was fun having help from the gang, we spread out the chores evenly and we even joked that it was so much like Hell’s Kitchen and i’m Miss Ramsay. lol!

Though the dish don’t look very “green”, but trust me, it was really, really authentic! Very creamy, very smooth, spicy, and very very THAI! It’s not difficult actually, just know what are the key ingrdients each cuisine tends to use more. For Thai cuisines, lemongrass, kaffir lime, shrimp paste, fish sauce etc seems to be essential.

For this “better than restaurant” authentic Thai dinner, we spent $13.40, for 5 of us ending the dinner all having bulging tummies =)

I love cooking for many people. Gimme more please! =DD

Pork Burgers

I found this in the archives of my old blog. it was taken a loong time ago. I have this habit of not cooking the smae dish in at least a six months period so that i can always come up with new recipes. It’s exactly the same as when i only wear all my clothes once and i never wanna wear them again! LOL! What a weirdo!

Basically, the patty is very very chinese style, minced pork, garlic and onions, and the exact same seasoning for my ngoh hiang.  The special stuff would definitely be “hua jiao”. Have no idea what it is called in English. Just top the patty with some sukiyaki sauce, egg and cheese and you have a very special pork burger! =D

Laksa Baked Rice

MY FAVORITE DISHHHH!!! IT’S HIGHLY ADDICTIVE AND YUMMYYYYYYY!!!

i whipped this up for my pals quite some time ago! Was teaching them my secret recipes. I’m uber glad they loved it. It’s one of the fusion dish that i invented, which i love most. You never expect Laksa to go so perfectly with  loads of CHEESE!!! I simply used cheddar cheese and i think its already perfect. lemme try mozzerella the next time! =D