Homemade Meatballs in Tomato & Baked Beans Sauce

Back after such a long long disappearance act from this space with a simple and quick dish and I will be off again.

Yes, my hubby and I will be expecting our little one in some 2 months' time. Third trimester has been kind to me thus far, just experiencing bad backaches but I guess that's normal as the belly grows.  Last lap now, jiayou!

Leaving you with the recipe of this Homemade Meatballs in Tomato & Baked Beans Sauce. Yeah I finally like got myself off the couch to cook again. Not that I haven't been cooking, but were just simple stir fry dishes or quick steam fish or egg, tofu and meat.

Anyway, hope to be back soon :)

Homemade Meatballs in Tomato & Baked Beans Sauce

Serves 2 to 3

250g minced meat
1 tbsp onion, chopped
2 tbsp water chestnuts, chopped
5 medium sized prawns, minced

2 tsp cornflour
2 tsp light soy sauce
Pinch of salt
Pepper, more if preferred

1 can of baked beans
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1.5 tbsp chilli sauce
1.5 tbsp oil
1 onion, cubed
2 tbsp mixed peas

1. Place minced meat, minced onions, minced water chestnut and minced prawns in a mixing bowl. Add in cornflour, light soy sauce, salt and pepper and mix the meat mixture well.
2. Pick up the meat mixture and slap it down into the mixing bowl for about 10 to 15 times. This will let the meat have a "Q" feel.
3. Shape the meat into equal round balls.
4. Heat oil in a pan.
5. Place in meatballs and pan-fry medium brown. Add in cubed onions and stir fry well. Place in mixed peas and stir fry a little.
6. Pour in baked beans, tomato sauce and chilli sauce. Stir to mix well.
7. Let sauce cook and simmer for 2 minutes. Dish and serve immediately.

Durian Ice Cream

Finally back to making some cold sweet treats! Hubby reminded me some days back that we still have got some durian puree stashed away in our freezer, and he suggested making durian puree with them.   
We quickly did a search for an easy and eggless durian ice cream recipe and decided to give this recipe by Nasi Lemak Lover a try.  Turned out to be a real simple and good cold, creamy and yummy treat!  Now anyone can make durian ice cream at home.  Just blend and freeze, no need of an ice cream maker!

Blend and store in a clean and dry container

Freeze and dig in!

Durian Ice Cream (Blend & Freeze!)
Recipe by Nasi Lemak Lover

Durian flesh 350g
Sugar 4tbsp ** adjust accordingly - I used only 4 tsp
Fresh Milk 100ml
Fresh whipped cream 70g


1. Blend durian flesh, sugar and milk in a blender till smooth.
2. Add in fresh whipped cream and mix well.
3. Pour into a container and freeze overnight or until set.

Home-made Chicken Essence

Sorry for my disappearance act! As much as I would like to keep up with my blog posts, I am unable to - first trimester had been a tiring period for me.  And yes, I moving on to my next stage in life - being a mummy to a little one (soon!).

Now that I am up and feeling a little more energetic, I bought a black chicken from the wet market and made myself some pure home-made black chicken essence to nourish myself and my LO!  This chicken essence is said to strengthen Mummy's body making her less lethargic.  Nothing beats home-made at this point - I cannot bear the thought of downing those dozens of store bought chicken essence because of the preservatives!

This home-made chicken essence is easy to make and is so yummy.  Just the use of a whole black chicken and some red dates, you are ready to make yourself this nourishing soup.  Easy huh?

You may choose to use kampong chicken if you cannot get black chicken.  Otherwise use black chicken as they are packed with more nutrients.

Home-made Chicken Essence

1 whole black chicken (You can ask the poultry seller to remove the chicken skin and chop into smaller parts for you)

4 big red dates, pitted and rinsed

1. Clean all chopped chicken parts, clean internal parts and wash off blood, scrap off transparent membrane from chicken skin with a knife. Clean and dry with kitchen towel.  Using either a chopper or pestle, pound the meat and bone of the chicken parts to break up and loosen the meat and bone a little so that chicken essence can be "forced out" more easily.

2. Place half of the pounded chicken parts into your double boiler, place red dates on meat and top with remaining chicken parts.

Look at the liquid gold collected at the bottom after 3.5 hours of double-boiling.

The hours put in on double-boiling and I got half bowl of this pure sweet and yummy chicken essence with no salt added! Drank up within minutes. Worth it :)

3. Place into your double-boiler and let it do its job for at least 3 hours.  Throughout the 3 hours, essence will drip down from the tiny openings into the bigger holder.  Enjoy!

Chinese Style Stir Fried Spaghetti

All these while I have always thought that pasta tastes best when cooked the western way, but I am so wrong! I tried stir frying it the Chinese style for lunch one afternoon and was instantly won over. Tasted like the chinese char mee. Yummy indeed!

Chinese Style Stir Fried Spaghetti
Serves 1

80g of Spaghetti - cook till al dente
2-3 garlic, minced
Half onion, sliced thinly
1 quarter capsicum, thinly sliced
3 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 prawns, shelled, devein and cut into 3 pcs
1 tbsp oil

1/2 tbsp oyster sauce/ abalone sauce
1/2 to 1 tbsp light soy sauce (adjust accordingly to preferred taste)
1/2 tbsp chinese cooking oil (Hua Diao Chiew)
1 tsp sesame oil
2 to 4 tbsp water
dash of pepper
spring onion, cubed - for garnishing

1. Bring a pot of water to boil, put in spaghetti and cook for 8min till al dente (or according to packaging instruction).
2. While spaghetti is cooking, heat oil in a pan and fry garlic and onion till fragrant (do not allow it to brown). Add in capsicum and fry for awhile then add in prawn cubes and button mushrooms. Cook till prawn cubes are almost done.
3. Drain spaghetti water and add in cooked spaghetti into main pan and mix well.
4. Add in all sauce (except water and pepper) and stir fry well.

5. Add in water and stir well to mix, allow to cook for about 30seconds.
6. Add pepper and mix well.
7. Dish out and top with spring onion. Serve immediately.

Milo Chiffon Cake

Sorry for the lack of posts these days as I have been feeling lazy of late.  Weather has been so hot these few weeks that all I want to do is just hide in the air conditioned room away from the scorching heat and humidness, as well as from the haze! 

Now, here is one milo chiffon cake that I tried some 2 weeks back and will gladly make this again.  Gonna hibernate again hehe. Be back soon (I hope :P)

Milo Chiffon Cake
Recipe by Victoria Bakes

100g egg yolk (c. 5 large egg yolk)
50g coconut oil (I used olive oil)
80g milk (I heat up the milk abit)
60g milo powder
18g condense milk
130g cake flour, sifted twice

200g egg white (c. 5 large egg white)
70g caster sugar

1. Mix milk, condense milk and milo powder together. blend well

2. Whisk egg yolk briefly then whisk in oil

3. dd milk mixture into egg yolk. mix well

4. Add in flour and incorporate well

5. Add sugar to egg white in 3 additions, and beat till stiff, shiny peaks

6. Fold egg white meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 additions

7. Pour batter into chiffon pan and tap pan a few times

8. Bake in preheated oven of 180 degrees C, second lowest rack for c. 40 min or till an inserted skewer comes out clean

9. Invert to cool completely before unmoulding

Fish Congee

Weather has been so hot and humid of late that all I wanted was soupy and easy to eat food.  Since we had a fish head and some fish bones in our freezer, why not make some fish stock and cook congee out of it? I prefer congee cooked from soup stocks because the congee are more flavourful cooked that way! More work but all worthwhile.  This healthy fish congee makes a great meal for toddlers, children and adults. One pot for all :)

Fish Congee
2l fish stock
1 cup rice (soaked for 30min at least with a few drops of oil and 1/4 tsp salt)
White Fish slices
3 tbsp minced meat (seasoned with 2 tsp soy sauce, a dash of pepper, 1/2 tsp sesame oil & 1 tsp cornflour)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Spring onion, fried onion & pepper- for garnishing & taste

1. Bring fish stock to boil, drain rice water and pour rice into fish stock. Allow to come to boil and let it be on medium heat, letting rice cooked and thicken into congee texture.
2. Add in white fish slices into boiling thickening congee, spoon into small teaspoons of minced meat and stir well with a ladle to allow congee to cook evenly.
3. When fish slices and minced meat are cooked, season congee with salt to taste.
4. Garnish with spring onion cubes, fried onion, pepper and serve immediately.


How to make Fish Stock?
Bones and head of 1 garoupa, wash and dried briefly with kitchen towel
8-10 dried scallops or 4 medium sized scallops, rinsed
3 stalks of spring onion
1 carrot, skinned and diced
3 to 4 slices of ginger
2.5 litres of water

1. Place water in a big pot, place in dried scallops, spring onion stalks, carrot and bring to boil.
2. In a non-stick pan, heat 1/2 tsp oil and add in ginger slices and fry till fragrant. Add in fish head and bones and pan fried till 3/4 cooked. If you have stock bags, you can place the fish head and bones into 2 or 3 stock bags and place them into the main stock pot, otherwise scoop pan fried fish head and bones directly into stock pot.
3. Allow stock pot to come to a boil, lower heat and let it be on a rolling simmer for 1 or 1.5h. Fish stock is ready for soups, hotpots or congee. (Remove fish head and bones before using for cooking congee)

No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake

Last week I had a little guest over at my place for a one-night stay. This little guest was none other than the little girl that my mother babysat for the past years since she was like 3 months' old??? Well, she has now grown into a fine little girl whom I still adore so much.  And so her mama "parked" her at my place for a 2-day-1-night stay, and I cooked her favourite noodle soup lunch, and we played baking in my humble kitchen.

Fun for her, and me as well!

Sinking her teeth into one slice of the Oreo Cheesecake once it was set and decorated.

No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake

Makes a 6-inch cake

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 

1. Mix the crumbs and melted butter in a bowl. Spoon cookie base into baking pan 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 oreo creamcheese mixture into baking pan, cover top of baking pan with cling wrap anf allow to chill in the fridge until set. Decorate with Oreo cookies or crushed cookies and enjoy!

Lemon Herb Roasted Potatoes

With the number of potato dishes popping up here, you might think I am crazy about anything potatoes now yeah? But no I am not.  Back dated posts all these are and I am rushing to get them out of the drafts.

I like how potatoes fit well being the main dish (think Shepherd's Pie!), and also makes good alternative as sides to main dishes.

Gotta say that this is a super easy dish to do as no peeling of the potato skin is required! All you need to do is to scrub the potato skins clean, dap dry with kitchen towel, slice them three quarter way down like how you would do to hasselback potatoes, brush on the oil & herb mixture, and off to the oven they go!  Easy? They taste yummy too. Make these to impress your guests if you have them over to your place :) Made these for Mummy when she came to my place to accompany me when hubby was out on biz trip. Glad Mummy enjoyed it :)

Lemon Herb Roasted Potatoes
Recipe by Rasa Malaysia
Serve 3

Ingredients

1 pounds baby potatoes

Oil Mixture

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley leaves
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
Scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
3 dashes ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350F. Cut slits on the potatoes, do not cut through. Mix all ingredients in the Oil Mixture together.

Place the potatoes in a roasting pan and brush with the Oil Mixture. Make sure to brush inside the slits of the potatoes. Save some for basting.

Roast the potato for 1 hour, basting the oil mixture at 30 minute interval using the remaining Oil Mixture. Serve immediately after roasting.

Double-boiled Ginseng Chicken Soup

Finally found some time after so long to double-boil some herbal soup for our dinner on a weekend night.  Double-boiling soup is not difficult task, it is the time that you need set aside to be able to get a pot of nice and rich tasting double-boiled soup.  At least 2.5 to 3 hours of dedication and you will be rewarded :)

This time I bought one pre-packed Chinese herbal mix from the supermarket, grabbed a whole chicken thigh and off I went to make the soup. The good thing about double-boiling soup is that meat added will be soft and tender tasting still, even after hours of cooking. We wiped off the chicken thigh meat and soup in no time!

Double-boiled Ginseng Chicken Soup
300g to 350g whole chicken thigh
1.5l of water
Ginseng roots 人参
Honey dates 蜜枣
Red dates, pitted (optional) 红枣
Lotus seeds 湘莲
Liquorice 甘草
Indian bread 茯苓
Wolfberry 枸杞
Chuanxiong rhizome 川芎
Chinese angelica root 当归

1. Fill a big aluminium pot with enough water and bring to a rolling boil.
2. While waiting for the big pot of water to boil, remove fats and blood from chicken thigh. Snip off some chicken skins with underlying fats. Just leave some skin on. Rinse and clean meat and set in a dish. Pour hot water over chicken thigh to remove scums and excess oil.
3. Rinse all herbs.
4. Put 1.5l of water to boil in water boiler.

5. When big pot of water has come to a rolling boil, place in ceramic pot. Use a tong and place scalded chicken thigh into ceramic pot, place in rinsed herbs and finally pour in boiled water, place on ceramic pot lid and then main pot lid.
6. Bring big pot water to boil before turning down fire and let soup be at a gentle simmer for 2.5 to 3 hours. Remove as much oil from soup as possible.
7. Add salt to taste and serve immediately.

Benefits of Ginseng chicken soup
Improves stamina, complexion as well as rejuvenate the body.

Duchess Potatoes

Yet another dish that was made long time back and have sat in my draft for a long long time.

I made this dish to host my sister and brother-in-law before my sister popped. And here I am posting this so late when my baby nephew is already a month plus old!

These dainty potato rosettes goes well with any grilled steaks and roast meats, and are definitely a good alternative to the usual mash potatoes.  A little effort needed before you can sink your teeth into them but I assure you, it is worth it ;)

Duchess Potatoes
Recipe by Marshall Cavendish Mini Cookbook (Potatoes series)
Serves 4

450g potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
1 tbsp butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Salt, to taste
Ground white pepper, to taste

1. Cover and cook potatoes in a pot of simmering salt water for 10minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Drain well and discard water in pot.

2. To evaporate excess moisture in potatoes so that a more fluffy potato mixture can be obtained, return potatoes to dry pot and shake over low heat for 1-2 minutes. Shaking pot will prevent potatoes from sticking to the bottom of pot.
3. Rub potatoes through a fine sieve, or press through a ricer. Add butter while potatoes are warm. Beat with a wooden spoon until mixture is very smooth. Mix egg gradually into potato mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly oil a baking tray. Spoon potato mixture into a piping bag fitted with 1-cm star nozzle and pipe rosettes onto baking tray.

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 190deg C for 10-15min, or until golden. Dish out immediately and serve while still hot.

Japanese Potato Salad

Just last week, I tried to stop myself from being a couch potato and got down to making some Japanese Potato Salad. I had most of the ingredients on hand, so why not?

Attempted this a long time back and being the lazy wife, I used the same recipe again :P

Japanese Potato Salad

Recipe by Noob Cook

1/2 Japanese cucumber cut to thin, semi-circle slices

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 carrot peeled and cut to thin, semi-circle slices

2 russett potatoes peeled and quartered

water (enough water to submerge the potatoes)

3 tbsp cooked corn nibblets usually tetra-pak or canned (I did not add)

1/2 small onions chopped till fine bits

3/4 cup Japanese mayonnaise

salt and black pepper to taste

1. Rub cucumber slices with salt and allow to 'sweat' for about 30 minutes. This will make the cucumbers more crunchy. Rinse, drain and squeeze dry.

2.In a pot, bring water to boil. Add carrots and potatoes. Boil for 10 minutes. Drain.

3. Transfer boiled potatoes to a bowl. Use a fork to mash the potatoes, leaving some small chunks behind.

4. Add corn, carrot, cucumber, onion, and Japanese mayonnaise. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Chill in fridge before serving.

Note: Feel free to spice up this potato salad with more flavour such as chopped ham, karashi (Japanese mustard) and chopped hard boiled egg.

Tomato Egg

I am starting the year with more food dishes than more cakes and bread!  I bake when the kick comes, and stay away when I am not in the mood.  So... be prepped that more food dishes will appear here than before :P

Here's one quick and easy egg dish that can be served in no time, and it pairs so well with plain rice or plain porridge.

I love this combi of egg and tomato. Cooked this for the first time and hubby also said it was good. 

Tomato Egg

2 or 3 garlic, minced

1 medium tomato (roughly cut into cubes or slices)

3 eggs

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
a dash of pepper
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1/2 sesame oil (optional)

1.5 tbsp Canola oil

3/4 tsp sugar

1.  Crack eggs into a bowl and add light soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper, sesame oil (optional) and Chinese cooking wine.  Set aside.

2.  Heat oil in pan and add in minced garlic and fry for some 30 seconds, then add in tomato cubes/slices and add in sugar then stir fry it well.  Let tomato cook till soft but not too mushy (tomato juice will ooze out and soften the tomato cubes/slices).  Spread tomato evenly over pan.

3.  Pour beaten egg over tomato and on medium high heat, let egg cook and firm up a little before mixing it up with spatula to form scramble egg.  After mixing tomato and eggs well, and when you see that the egg is cooked (yet not too dry still), turn off heat, dish out and serve immediately.

Marble Cake

Skipped the CNY goodies baking this year because I wanted a good rest. Excuse it was not. I had slogged myself silly the past years with goodies baking and felt really tire out (but happy and satisfied of cuz!) when the baking project wrapped up, hence I decided a break will do me good for this year. All these explains why no CNY goodies appeared in this space.  Next year then :)

Wanted to start my new year with a slower and more relaxed pace, so I took a short break from food blogging.

Here is a cake which I baked some time back but stayed in my draft till now :)

Now that I am back, I wanna share this yummy marble cake recipe by Rasa Malaysia.  A simple but yummy cake and I am glad I tried baking this.

Do give it a try if you also have a love for marble cake like I do! :)

Marble Cake
Recipe by Rasa Malaysia

2 sticks (220g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
7 oz (200g) plain flour/all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
7 oz (200g) fine or powdered sugar (confectioners sugar or icing sugar) - I reduced to 160g as my Hubby and I do not like sweet tasting cakes
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
4 tablespoons fresh milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190deg C). Lightly grease the pan with some butter.

Mix the flour and the baking powder together and sieve. Add in salt and mix well. Set aside.

Use an electronic beater to mix butter and sugar until well combined or pale yellow in color. Add in the first egg. Beat well after each addition of egg until creamy. Scrape down the sides and add in vanilla essence and fold in the flour into the mixture and mix well. Finally, add in the milk.

Divide the batter into two portions. Stir the cocoa powder into one portion and mix well. Transfer the plain batter into the greased baking pan. Shake it lightly to distribute evenly. Pour the cocoa batter in the middle of baking pan, and lightly swirl the cocoa batter with a butter knife. I usually do the “S” shape with the butter knife a couple of times. Do not overmix.

Bake until golden brown and cooked, about 40 minutes. Insert a cake tester in the middle of the cake to test doneness. Remove it from the oven and let cool on the wire rack for another 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and serve immediately.

Banana Cake

Most home bakers would store a list of stuff that they plan to bake, and for me, banana cake has been one of the items that I have been wanting to bake. 

This was an impromptu bake. We had nothing for breakfast the next day and I bought a bunch of really ripe Del Monte bananas and got down to bake the cake after getting home from work.  Finally tried and got it off my "to-bake" list.

Hubby gave me a thumb's up after he tried the cake!  It was really yummy and this recipe by Wen's Delight was really good.  Cake was soft and moist.  All the banana cake lovers should really give this recipe a try.  


Banana Cake
Recipe by Wen's Delight (I made some variations to the original recipe)

2.5-3 Eggs (Room temp - Approx 150g) - I used 3 eggs and it weighed 160g
130g Sugar (Reduced, original-150g) - I used 110g
200g Banana (Ripe & cut into small pcs) - I mashed it with a fork
150g Top Flour (or plain flour/superlite flour/cake flour)
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
100g Corn oil (or any vegetable oil except olive oil, if prefer richer flavour replace with melted butter but it may cover the banana fragrant)
1/8 tsp Banana essense (optional)

Preheat oven to 160 degree C.
Grease & line a 8" round tin with paper.
I mashed the bananas with a fork.

1. Sieve flour, baking powder & soda together. Sieve twice & set aside.
2. Whisk eggs, sugar & banana at max. speed till stiff/ribbon stage. (For Kenwood Chef - approx 10-13mins)

3. Fold in flour & mix well. (Can use spatular or hand to mix)
4. Add in oil & mix well till batter is shiny & flowing.

 

5. Bake for 40 - 45min.