Air Fried Salmon with Garlic Powder & Italian Herbs

Air Fried Salmon with Garlic Powder & Italian Herbs

2 Salmon Fillets
Dash of salt
Garlic powder
Dash of black pepper
Italian Herbs

1. Wash and pat dry salmon fillets with kitchen towel.
2. Season fillets with salt, black pepper, garlic powder and Italian herbs, wrap with cling wrap and leave in fridge for 30min to an hour.

3. Preheat airfryer to 180deg C for 5min.
4. Put salmon fillets to airfry at 180deg C for 8 to 10min or till done. Serve immediately.

Korean Spicy Pork BBQ (Jeyuk Bokkeum / Dweji Bulgogi)

Another item that turned up at our family BBQ. We bought butterhead and lettuce vege and had the meat eaten in wrap paired with garlic and seasoned seaweeds. 

It was Mum and Dad's first experience eating wraps and gave thumbs' up. Tiring prepping the food but definitely worth it when family and people who appreciates your food show you that gratifying good and yummy sign, plus a thank you so much for the food!!! It is all these that push one on to make more yummy dishes.

Korean Spicy Pork BBQ (Jeyuk Bokkeum / Dweji Bulgogi)
Recipe by Korean Bapsang

2 pounds thinly sliced pork shoulder (900g)
1 small onion thinly sliced
3 scallions cut into 2-inch pieces

Marinade:
6 tablespoons Korean chili pepper paste (gochujang)
1 tablespoon Korean chili pepper flakes (gochugaru) (I left this out)

3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine (or mirin)
2 tablespoons sugar (or brown sugar)

1 tablespoon corn syrup (or honey)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1/2 small apple grated (about 4 tablespoons) – optional (I left out the grated apple)

Mix all marinade ingredients well. Combine the meat, onion, and scallions with the marinade and mix well.

Marinate for about an hour. (I left it in the freezer to do its job for 2 days, brought it down the night before BBQ to let it defrost.) Grill over charcoal or pan fry in a skillet over medium high heat until slightly caramelized. (Preheat and lightly oil with sesame oil before adding the meat. If pan frying, do not crowd the skillet. Adjust the heat as necessary.)

Mini Egg Cupcakes

Wow!!! I must say I was blown by these yummy egg cupcakes! For once, I finally succeeded in baking these dainty spongey eggy cupcakes. I make them twice long time back and they turned out dry I couldn't stomach them. This recipe by Angela Seah of Fun at Sassy's Kitchen is definitely a keeper. Now I need not spend S$1.70 for that ONE egg spongecake sold at a bakery near my house *yeah!!!!*

Spongy egg cupcake.

♡♡♡

These yummy treats weren't just yummy, they were easily done in 35 to 40min with baking time included. How can you not love this, right?

If you are like me, an egg cupcake lover, you sure have to try making them :)

I love to take photos of how the unbaked mixture went into the oven and rose to become dainty egg cupcakes!

To think Mummy used to tell us to never play with food!

:P

Mini Egg Cupcakes
Recipe by Angela Seah of Fun at Sassy's Kitchen with slight changes made

4 large eggs
200g fine sugar
A pinch of salt
180g plain flour (I ran out of plain flour and used Hong Kong flour instead)
1 tsp baking powder
35g oil

(I halved the recipe and made 10 dainty egg cupcakes, and used just 85g of fine sugar)

1. Line muffin tray with cupcake liners.
2. Place eggs, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and beat till light and fluffy. Took me about 10 minutes using my hand mixer.
3. I sifted flour and baking powder together and then add into egg mixture. Fold in gently till just combined.
4. Add oil and fold in till just combined.
5. Spoon egg mixture into cupcake liners till 3/4 full.
6. Put to bake in preheated oven at 180deg C for 20min. (Works well for my Rowenta oven, and no preheat was required.)
7. Remove egg cupcakes from muffin tray and leave to cool on cooling tray. Enjoy!

(I stored the egg cupcakes in airtight container and it stayed good for 2 days before we wiped it all out.)

Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs

Another item that I made for the family BBQ. I did not want the BBQ session to be laden with nothing but meat, Meat and MEAT! OMG... carnivore I am not! So made these teriyaki chicken kebabs and filled the sticks with colourful pineapple and vegetables!

Now, Im keeping this post short and sweet. Busy day at work today, gonna sit back and watch TVVvvvvvv!! :P

Teriyaki chicken recipe by Namiko Chen
(I marinated the meat using this recipe and made them into a kebab for BBQ)

• 1 lb (454 g) boneless chicken thigh with skin, rinsed and pat dry
• 
  

Teriyaki Sauce

• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. sake
• 1 Tbsp. mirin
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• ¼ onion, grated, including juice
• 1" (2.5 cm) ginger, grated, including juice
• 
  

1. 1. Cut each chicken thigh into 4 pieces. Prick the chicken with a fork so it absorbs more flavor.
   
2. 2. Combine the teriyaki sauce ingredients in a medium bowl or Ziploc bag.
3. 3. Add the chicken into the bowl and marinate for at least 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. (I left it in the freezer for 2 days and allow it to defrost a night before the kebab preparation.

Teriyaki Chicken Kebab recipe

Marinated Teriyaki chicken cubes

Pineapple cubes

Green & Red Capsicums, cubed

Onions, cubed

Satay sticks (soaked in warm water for 30min - prevent charred parts from the BBQ process)

1. Skewer a piece of teriyaki chicken cube 3/4 down the satay stick, and the sequence follows through as such, a piece of red capsicum cube, a green capsicum cube, 2 pcs onion cubes, then repeat one more time on same satay stick. Do the same for all other sticks till you use up all ingredients and you are ready to use it for your BBQ! Otherwise, clingwrap it and place in fridge till later use.

BBQ Chicken Wings

A way overdue post here. In fact I have so many in queue to posts and am way behind time! 

Held a mini BBQ session with our family some 2 weeks back during the Jubilee weekend. Booked a BBQ pit downstairs our place and BBQed to our hearts' contents.

For the first time, I took up much of the meat marinating works as I did not want to bog Mum down since she was in the midst of recovering just about 1 month after her operation.

Chicken wings are the must-haves during BBQ sessions. I looked through food blogs and decided to give this recipe by House of Annie a try. Guess what?? Good feedbacks! My 1st time, but definitely not my last time trying out this recipe. A keeper :)

Mid joint wings BBQed to its perfection.

(Credit to my BIL who insisted he had a part to play for the yummy wings hahaha!)

Barbecued Chicken Wings

recipe adapted from House of Annie

I doubled the marinate sauce and marinated 1kg of mid joint chicken wings with it

6 large chicken wings (Annie's advice: Can use up to 10 with the same amount of marinade)
1/2 tsp Chinese wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 Tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste 

1. Combine all the ingredients and marinate the chicken wings for 6 hours, up to 3 days. I find a ziplock bag really handy for this purpose–just squeeze out all the air and massage the marinate into the chicken wings. Flip around once or twice before cooking.
2. Grill it on your barbeque until golden brown and cooked or bake at 425 F for about 20-25 min and finish with a 2-3 minute broil for added color.

Stir-fry Lotus Roots with Sambal Chilli

Back to work for 2 weeks already. New job, new workplace, new people. Everything has been good thus far.

Finally found some time to put up a post and keep my blog alive. This dish is one that I adore alot. Whether it is being cooked in soup or stir-fries, I love eating lotus roots.

This round, I aren't cooking lotus roots in soup but doing a stir-fry with it. If your Mummy gives me a little tub of sambal chilli, put it to good use!

My Mum makes mean sambal chilli sauce!

Love the spicy sweet taste this dish has. Pairing the minced garlic and dried shrimps with the lotus makes this dish very appetising. I could down a bowl of rice with it!

Stir-fry Lotus Roots with Sambal Chilli

500g lotus roots (de-skinned, washed & thinly sliced)
2 Tsp sambal chilli
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp dried shrimps, soakedfor 30min and drained
4 garlics, minced
2 to 3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Spring onion bits - Garnish

1. Heat oil in pan and fry garlic, sambal chilli and dried shrimps till fragrant.

2. Add in sliced lotus and stir fry till well mixed.
3. Add in sugar and salt and stir fry well. Stir in water and let it come to boil till gravy is formed. Garnish with spring onion bits and serve immediately with rice.

Stir-fry Potato in Black Sauce

I am a pure Teochew and was brought up having mostly plain porridge for lunch when young. It is well known that Teochews enjoy eating plain porridge (cooked with or without sweet potatoes) along with many veggie and meat dishes.

We weren't a well-to-do family and had simple and cheap dishes with plain porridge for our lunches.  Nothing fanciful but it was good enough and we grew up healthily (and HAPPY!!! anyway :) ) Dad was the sole breadwinner of our family and slogged his life to bring back the keeps for our family. Mum stopped work when she had me and ever since then dedicated her life to my Dad and us children. I have a wonderful Dad and Mum, and I am grateful for them. Without them, no us today!

Gone were the days that my family has to live hands to mouth but old habits die hard - Till today, plain porridge are still my preferred type of lunch, especially when it's paired with dishes that I like.

I am a Teochew Ah Nia afterall. :)

This, a dish that is so simple and well paired with a bowl of plain porridge or even a bowl of plain rice.  A dish that Mum still cook for us today and we'll be like "yeah I like this dish!" when we get to the dinner table.

Stir-fry Potato in Black Sauce

5 Brastagi potatoes (peeled, rinsed & sliced)
80g to 100g chicken fillet, sliced thinly
3 pcs of garlic, minced
2 tbsp dark soy sauce sauce
Half bowl of water
1/2 tbsp chinese cooking wine
2 tbsp canola oil

1. Heat up oil in frying pan.
2. Add in minced garlic and fry till fragrant.
3. Add in sliced meat and stir fry till almost cooked. Place in sliced potatoes and stir fry well.
4. Add in dark soy sauce and chinese cooking wine and stir well to coat potatoes and meat with sauce. Add in water, enough to cover potatoes and mix well. Put on pot lid and turn to medium heat to bring to simmer. Sauce will start to thicken.
5. Stir fry the dish well, turn off heat and dish out. Serve immediately with plain rice or porridge.

Oreo Cheesecake & Coffee Cheesecake Cups

Made these cheesecake cups for my colleagues as a little Thank-You gesture for the farewell lunches and gifts I received.  It was my first time making cheesecakes into little dessert cups and I definitely love how they turned out. Cute, dainty and sweet little cheesecake cuppies. I want to do these again!

Colleagues commented that the plastic dessert cups were cute. Got them from Phoon Huat (not cheap!!!). Gonna try purchasing them from Tao Bao :)

Since this post is done on 9 Aug 2015 - being the SG50 post, I'll end here with a Happy 50th National Day to Everyone & All Singaporeans!!!

Coffee Cheesecake Cups

Makes 10 cups

Bottom base

90g digestive biscuits crumbs 

30g oreo biscuits crumbs 

65g butter (melted) 

Fillings

250g cream cheese 

60g sugar 

12g instant coffee (dissolve with 1 tablespoon water) 

2 teaspoon gelatin (dissolve with 1 tablespoon hot water) 

170ml whipping cream 

Deco (Optional)

10 chocolate coated coffee beans

1. Mix the crumbs and melted butter in a bowl. Spoon 2 to 3 tsp of cookie base into dessert cups and gently press to level base and keep in the fridge. (Do not press base hard as it might be hard and difficult to spoon out to eat)

2. In another bowl, beat cream cheese until soften, gradually beat in sugar until the sugar dissolve. Add in the coffee mixture until well blended.
3. Whisk the whipping cream in another bowl until thicken.
4. Mix the dissolved gelatin into the coffee mixture until well incorporated. Fold in the in the whipped cream until everything well combine.
5. Spoon in cheese mixture into dessert cups  till 3/4 full and chill in the fridge until it set.
6. After the cheesecake has set, decorate each coffee cheesecake cups with a chocolated coated coffee bean. Enjoy!

Oreo Cheesecake Cups

Makes 10 cups

Bottom base

90g digestive biscuits crumbs 

30g oreo biscuits crumbs 

65g butter (melted) 

Fillings

250g cream cheese 

60g sugar 

2 teaspoon gelatin (dissolve with 1 tablespoon hot water) 

170ml whipping cream 

14 individual pcs of oreo cookies (cream removed), crush with a rolling pin till you get a mixture of fine bits and chunky bits 

Deco (Optional)

Oreo cookies (I broke each oreo cookies (with cream on) into 4 quarters)

1. Mix the crumbs and melted butter in a bowl. Spoon 2 to 3 tsp of cookie base into dessert cups and gently press to level base and keep in the fridge. (Do not press base hard as it might be hard and difficult to spoon out to eat)

2. In another bowl, beat cream cheese until soften, gradually beat in sugar until the sugar dissolve. 
3. Whisk the whipping cream in another bowl until thicken.
4. Mix the dissolved gelatin into the cream cheese mixture until well incorporated. Fold in the in the whipped cream until everything well combine. Add in crushed oreo bits and fold in briefly.
5. Spoon in oreo creamcheese mixture into dessert cups till 3/4 full, Place oreo cookie as deco on top, and chill in the fridge until it set. Enjoy!

Chocolate Roll Cake with Nutella filling

Currently on a 10 days break before starting on my new job,  I have lots of time on hand to spare. Catching up on the hours of sleep that I have lost, prepping food,   cooking dinner as well as prepping breakfast for Hubby. I am so enjoying this period! Counting down to the days I get back to work again, if only time could stay still haha!

Now, you are in for some eye feasting here. I made my first ever chocolate roll cake and it was a nice one.

If you are a chocolate lover, you will love this cake. Chocolate cake with nutella filling, convinced? Nothing can really go wrong with Nutella actually. Heehee!

Will make this cake again because I love chocolate cake :)

Anyway, Happy Golden Jubilee Weekend to All! Have a wonderful long weekend break with your family and loved ones :)

Chocolate Roll Cake with Nutella filling

20g cocoa powder
40g hot water
60g egg yolks (about 3 big eggs, or 4 small eggs)
50g caster sugar
50g canola oil
15g milk + 15g espresso coffee, without milk/sugar (can just skip this and use 30g milk if no coffee. I use coffee to intensify the chocolate flavour and taste.)
75g plain flour

130g egg white
55g caster sugar

1. Mix cocoa powder with hot water amd stir well to form a thick smooth chocolate paste. Set aside.

2. Whisk egg yolk and sugar till well mixed and sugar is dissolved.  Add in canola oil, milk and espresso coffee and whisk to combine.

3. Add in chocolate paste and mix well with the egg yolk mixture.
4. Sieve plain flour into egg yolk mixture and whisk till combined.

5. With an electric mixer, beat egg whites till foamy. Add in caster sugar in 3 additions, making sure each addition is well mixed before adding more. Beat till stiff peaks form.
6. Place 1/3 of egg white into yolk mixture and fold in gently with a spatula or a whisk.
7. Fold in remaining egg whites in 2 additions till just incorporated. Make sure not to over fold and deflate the chiffon mixture.
8. Pour chiffon mixture into lined tin (10"×12"),  use a scraper to spread out and level mixture.

9. Put to bake in preheated oven at 180deg C for 12 to 15min or till done. (I baked 180deg, 21min in my Rowenta oven) To test done-ness, when cake springs back and makes a "sss" sound when pressed, it is done.
10. Remove and place on cooling rack. Place a new baking paper over top of cake and flip over to other side of cake. Remove baking paper and let it cool slightly before  rolling. You can choose to roll cake on either side of the cake.
11. Slice off end of swiss roll to form somehwat 45deg angle so that when cake is rolled till the end, it gets tucked nicely underneath. At the front of the cake where you will start the rolling, make 2 horizontal cut gently on the cake to allow easier rolling. Take care not to slice through cake.
12. Spread your favourite fillings and start rolling! (I used the all-time favourite Nutella spread)
13. Wrap rolled cake in baking paper and leave in fridge to set its shape for about 45min before slicing.

I prefer leaving the roll cake out till nutella filling has softened a little before eating.

Purple Sweet Potato Roll Cake with Vanilla Greek Yoghurt Filling

Seems like I am not quite done with my swiss roll craze! I am still rolling away and am certainly enjoying each roll better :). Getting the hang of baking and rolling this cake which was on once a big challenge for me.

Cracked cake, sticky tops, I had them all but I am glad I made it through with practice (and no giving ups!). I got to know what is the comfortable temperature and time to turn out a good cake, easy for me to handle and of cuz yummy enough for the tummies.

So, what's with the purple sweet potato in my roll cake? It was not in my plan to bake this actually but as I was peeling some purple sweet potatoes and putting it to steam for my breakfast, I thought I could try making some purple roll cake with it! Sadly the cake did not turn out to be a nice purple hue that I imagined it to be. It was still good anyway.

I was lazy to beat up butter or whipped cream for the cake filling, so I used greek yoghurt instead. With a slight sour twist to it, it gave the cake a refreshing feel since the purple sweet potato (seriously) did not contribute much taste to the cake.  I enjoyed it anyway :)

Purple Sweet Potato Roll Cake with Vanilla Greek Yoghurt Filling

60g egg yolk
30g canola oil
15g caster sugar
45g milk
50g mashed purple sweet potato (steam sweet potato and mash it right after it is dteamed and still hot)
65g plain flour

160g egg white
70g caster sugar

1. Whisk egg yolk and sugar till well mixed and sugar is dissolved.

2. Add in canola oil and milk and whisk to combine.
3. Add in mashed purple sweet potato and whisk well to break up potato mash and incorporate it well with egg yolk mixture.
4. Sieve plain flour into mixture and whisk to stir till combined.
5. With an electric mixer, beat egg whites till foamy. Add in caster sugar in 3 additions, making sure each addition is well mixed before adding more. Beat till stiff peaks form.

6. Place 1/3 of egg white into yolk mixture and fold in gently with a spatula or a whisk.
7. Fold in remaining egg whites in 2 additions till just incorporated. Make sure not to over fold and deflate the chiffon mixture.
8. Pour chiffon mixture into lined square tin (10"×10"), then use a scraper to spread out and level mixture.
9. Put to bake in preheated oven at 180deg C for 12 to 15min or till done. (I baked 180deg, 21min in my Rowenta oven) To test done-ness, when cake springs back and makes a "sss" sound when pressed, it is done.
10. Remove and place on cooling rack. Place a new baking paper over top of cake and flip over to other side of cake. Remove baking paper and let it cool slightly before  rolling. You can choose to roll cake on either side of the cake.
11. Slice off end of swiss roll to form somehwat 45deg angle so that when cake is rolled till the end, it gets tucked nicely underneath. At the front of the cake where you will start the rolling, make 2 horizontal cut gently on the cake to allow easier rolling. Take care not to slice through cake.

12. Spread your favourite fillings and start rolling! (For me, I used vanilla greek yoghurt.)
13. Wrap rolled cake in baking paper and leave in fridge to set its shape for about 45min before slicing.

Easy Coral Lettuce Salad

I love vegetables but somehow never really enjoyed eating salad. I prefer my vegetable blanched or stir fried. I love flavours so I can never stick to eating salad for a long time. Salad are so plain and boring lor ), at least for me lah.

The hubby requested for salad for last night's dinner. I needed to do something to spruce up the salad dinner. I did not want to feel like a cow feasting on a bowl of green veggies!!! Okay... I could add in this one thing to bring out more taste to that bowl of green thing. Tried and oh it was so so good.

Enjoyed the salad dinner tonight and wouldn't mind having this again :)

Secret to my yummy bowl of salad was adding in some homemade chicken floss. Hehe~

I love flavours.

I love colours too. :)

Easy Coral Lettuce Salad
For 2 to 3 person

2 bunches of coral lettuce or any salad veggie of your choice, washed and torn into smaller pcs
10 cherry tomatoes, washed and halved
1 hard boiled egg, cut into small bite sizes
2 tbsp of homemade chicken floss (for the tossing) + 1 tbsp (or more for the topping)
5 to 6 tbsp toasted sesame dressing (I use Kewpir brand)

1. Place coral lettuce in a mixing bowl, add toasted sesame dressing, mix and toss well.
2. Add in 2 tbsp chicken floss and mix well.
3. Spoon coral lettuce into serving bowls, place halved cherry tomatoes and hard boiled egg pieces on top of coral lettuce. Top with some chicken floss. Serve.

Mini Wholemeal Hotdog Buns

I took a short 3 weeks break from bread making because I was kind of on a roll cake craze. 

Back with buns for breakfast. Wanting to clear those hotdogs lying in my freezer, I used them in my buns and made them into mini sized buns.

Love how these mini buns turned out. Soft, fluffy and cute looking. Gonna make more mini buns from now on! Plus more varieties in one batch bake too :)

Mini Wholemeal Hotdog Buns

Gelatinized dough

50g bread flour
35ml boiling water

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough.
3. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and up to 48 hours.


Basic sweet bread dough

(Yield roughly 490g dough)

150g bread flour
50g wholemeal flour
40g sugar
10g milk powder
4g instant yeast
1/4 tsp or 3g salt
87ml cold water
30g cold egg
30g butter, room temperature

7 chicken franks (hotdogs), sliced into half to make 14 pcs 

Buns

1. Tear gelatinized dough into smaller pieces into the bread machine. Add water, beaten egg and top with flour And milk powder. Place salt and sugar on opposite corners of bread machine, make a small deep hole in centre of flour and spoon in instant yeast. Gently cover yeast with some flour and set BM to work. I use Function 8 fory Kenwood BM250 for this step. 

2. When dough has come together and is more or less a smooth dough, add in softened butter. I restarted my BM on Function 8 again and let BM mix till well incorporated with dough and is smooth and soft. I then remove dough and hand knead till dough reaches window pane stage, where you get a thin translucent membrane when dough is stretched. (This more or less tells you that you will get soft and fluffy bread and buns!)

3. Shape dough into a ball, leave to proof for 40 min or until doubled. 

4. Punch down dough to rid excess air, then divide dough into 14 equal portions at 35g each and roll it round and set aside for 5 min to let it relax for easier rolling. Slightly shape round dough into a tear drop shape and roll it flat and long.

5. Place half a hot dog on wide side of flattened dough and roll up. Repeat for the remaining dough. Place each dough about 1.5cm apart on a greased baking tin.


6. Cover with clean moist cloth and leave to proof for 40min or till doubled in size. 

7. Brush bun tops with whisked egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp water, sprinkle some white sesame on centre of each dough and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 12 to 15min or till slightly golden brown. 

8. Cool on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

Fragrance of freshly baked buns filled my kitchen

Mini wholemeal hotdog buns with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Simple. Pure bliss :)