I’m so excited! I finally got myself a Kitchen Aid mixer to help me bake up a storm! I got them 2nd hand via this wonderful app named Carousell, which I am currently addicted to. So, the above video and photo were taken by the former owners. My kitchen doesn’t contain mouthwash 😛 As I’ve just brought it home, cleaned it up etc, I was too lazy to take new photos of it. Maybe I will do so when I’m in the midst of making my Maccha Cupcakes with Azuki beans! Alas, I’ll be busy for the next couple of...
Japanese Inspired Salad with Salmon Sashimi and Onsen Eggs
Trying to eat clean and increase my iron intake due to my condition plus general stress and exhaustion. So, I created this Japanese inspired salad which I’ve made for friends before but without the egg. I just wanted to perfect my onsen eggs so that when I’m good enough at it, I can make them into proper ramen eggs. It’s really very easy and a lot of ingredients can be substituted if you’re a vegan or a pure vegetarian. It’s really the dressing that makes this salad yummy. Recipe serves 1 as a full meal. Trust me. Half-way through this...
Salted Caramel Banana Chia Seed Cupcakes with Caramel Centres
Tadah! I’ve been wanting to bake salted caramel cupcakes ever since my bro’s friend’s friend baked the most awesome batch of those. So, I tried my hand at them but I made a few variations from traditional recipes. My recipe doesn’t have eggs and I added Chia seeds to make it a little less guilty (antioxidants and fibre!). Recipe below makes about 15 standard sized cupcakes. Pretzel decoration is optional. Ingredients For the cupcakes: 180g plain flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 115g unsalted butter, at room temperature 220g, plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar 1 mashed...
Wagashi (Japanese Traditional Sweets) Making
I learnt how to make traditional Japanese sweets (Wagashi) today! To read more about it, click here to jump over to my other blog.
Lobster Bisque Risotto
It was a nice quiet afternoon where mum and bro were overseas so there were no lunch plans for dad and I. Thus, I decided to do what I’m good at – 1 pot meals. I went a little lazy and used a can of lobster bisque soup for this dish. Really good for the lazy cooks. Ingredients: 1 carrot, diced 5 cloves of garlic, minced 1 chicken thigh (optional, I wasn’t planning on a pure seafood risotto) 6 prawns, shelled 1 squid, sliced 1 cup of frozen baby peas 1.5 cups of risotto rice 1 can of lobster bisque...
Seafood Risotto perfumed with Truffle Oil
Being Asian, I love rice – white/ brown/ sticky/ short-grained/ long-grained…just rice. So, we had a pack of risotto rice sitting in our cupboards for ages (don’t worry…it hasn’t expired and was vacuumed packed), so we decided to cook seafood risotto. The recipe below cooks for 4. Ingredients1.5 cups of rice (using a standard cup size and not the small little container that comes with rice cookers)1 squid, sliced100g clams1 chicken thigh, diced OR any fish to substitute 1/2 can of tomato puree4 cloves of garlic, minced4 shallots, sliced OR 1 pearl onion, chopped5 cups of stock or water1 tomato,...
Omakase Dinner at my place
Had dinner with ML and Siew Mai to celebrate ML’s birthday and when we were flipping through the menu, I couldn’t help but comment that some of the dishes were doable in my kitchen! Then the 2 teased and said that I should cook and then they come over to eat. That inspired my “Omakase” dinner. Omakase in Japanese means ‘leave it to me’ so in this case, leave it to me to come up with the following, which I cooked for 6 pax in total. For the amuse bouche, I did what is slowly becoming my signature, Tofu with...
Pan Seared Salmon Belly with Mushrooms & Mashed Peas infused with Bacon
I know, the photo isn’t the most appetising but it was really quite yummy. This is my idea of a healthy dinner which is full of Omega-3 fatty acids, iron and vitamins. Quite quick to prepare too! You’ll need: Slices of Salmon Belly (substitute with fillet if you must) Half a packet of shimeiji mushrooms (or button) 2 rashes of bacon half a cup of baby peas Method: If you’re using frozen peas like I did, microwave them covered on HIGH for 2 mins While the peas are in the microwave, heat up a frying pan and when hot, pan...
Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Beef Tenderloin
I’ve cooked beef several times. Same with spaghetti so I don’t think I need to repeat the method. Simply said, beef was cooked the Heston Blumenthal manner where I used a searing hot pan and flipped the steak every 15 seconds till it became medium rare. As for the spag, aglio olio means lots of garlic and olive oil. Extra bits that I threw in were asparagus and a tomato. Do note that I find myself adding a lot of salt whenever I cook aglio olio and I suspect that it’s because there’s no sauce for the spag to absorb. ...
Stir Fried Chinese Spinach in Fermented Beancurd Sauce
Those who live in South East Asia will be relatively used to this version of a stir fry. It’s not your usual Cantonese version of oyster sauce or plain garlic. I suppose that it’s more Teochew or Hokkein. Also, its fermented beancurd. Not fermented soybeans. The taste is more like miso but 10x more pungent but it mellows out when cooked. It normally comes in a small bottle and is fermented with chilli. Ingredients100g Chinese spinach (leaves and stem separated)2 cloves garlic, minced1 chilli, sliced (I used bird’s eye chilli here for a bit more kick)1.5 fermented beancurd cubes1 tsp...