Popcorn Chicken with Pineapple Cubes & Onions in Tomato-Chilli Sauce

Who would have thought of making a sweet and sour pork-like dish in all under 30 minutes? Mum taught me this - the easy and fast (not forgetting lazy!) way is replacing pork with frozen popcorn chicken.  Airfry them and coat them with the sweet and sour or spicy sauce that you have prepped and heated up and you get the dish served in no time.

Easy. No fuss and yummy.  We have got a can of pineapple and some onions, so I bought a pack of popcorn chicken and churned up this dish.  It went so well with rice.  Kiddos will love this too :)

Popcorn Chicken with Pineapple Cubes & Onions in Tomato-Chilli Sauce
(Serve 2 to 3)

200g popcorn chicken
1 large onion, cubed
3 or 4 slices of canned pineapple, cubed
1.5 tbsp oil

3 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce (optional)
1/2 tbsp sugar (do taste test and add more sugar according to taste)
1 tbsp water

1. Preheat airfryer for 8min at 200deg C.
2. Place frozen popcorn chicken into airfryer basket and put to airfry at 200deg C for first 7min then 180deg C for another 5 to 7 min till light golden brown and crispy.

3. In a pan, heat oil and add in onion cubes. Saute onions till fragrant then add in pineapple cubes and stir fry for about 30sec. Add in tomato sauce, sweet chilli sauce, water and sugar and stir to mix well. Let sauce come to a boil. Do taste test. Add more sugar if preferred, more water if a thinner consistency if preferred.
4. Place airfried popcorn chicken into sauce pot and mix well to coat sauce evenly.  Dish out and serve immediately.

Note: You may add cubed capsicums and cucumbers if you prefer more crunch and colour to this dish.

Spicy Prawn Pasta

Another pasta dish and I hope you aren't too sick of seeing this :P

Mum came over my place last week to accompany me while Hubby was out of town and I cooked this simple prawn pasta for Mum. Was not a big feast but I was glad Mum gave me the thumbs' up :)  Definitely enjoyed the 2 days spent with just my Mama alone.  Love cooking for my family and bonding with my family over food. ♡♡♡

Spicy Prawn Pasta
260 to 280g pasta of your choice
8 pcs of big tiger prawns / shrimps
5 garlic, minced
1 medium onion, half of it minced and the other half sliced thinly (you may mince the whole onion if preferred)
2 to 3 red chilli, cut and remove seeds (if you preferred a milder level of spiciness)
1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried parsely or italian herbs
Black pepper (optional)
Salt
Water

1. Add salt into a pot of water and bring to boil. Add spaghetti and cook til al dente, about 8min or plus 2 or 3 more minutes if prefer a less firm texture (or follow the pasta packaging directions)
2. When spaghetti is cooked, retain about half a cup of salt water and drain the rest, then set drained spaghetti aside.
3. Heat 1/2 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan.
4. Add in minced garlic, all onions and chilli padi bits and stir fry till fragrant, onions to be slight translucent. Do not allow garlic to brown.
5. Add in prawns/shrimps and stir fry till prawns is half cooked.
6. Spoon in 5 or 6 tbsp of tomato pasta sauce and stir to mix well with all ingredients. Allow sauce to come to a boil on medium heat.
7. Add in 2 tbsp salted pasta water and mix well, then do a taste test. Add in dried parsley and dash of black pepper. Mix well.
8. Place in drained spaghetti and do a quick stir to coat spaghetti with sauce. Dish out and serve immediately.

Spicy Basil Minced Pork with Fried Egg & Rice

On days when the cooking mood kicks in, my hubby will take over a lunch or dinner slot and cook me a yummy meal. Some weeks back, he cooked me a plate of spicy basil minced pork with fried egg over a plate of hot plain rice. It was fantastically yummy! The minced pork was juicy, tender  (and sooo spicy!) and fragrant! Oh and the egg was fried till just right, the way I like it, not too fry yet crispy on the sides of the whites and yolk still runny when pricked.

I thought this gotta be put down in my blog to share with all, and so here it is.  I am gonna request for Hubby to cook me this again!  He's gonna feel real flattered :P

Recipe by Eating Thai Food 
(Slight changes were made to suit our preference)

For the egg

• 1 egg (we used 2 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons of oil for frying

Basil chicken

• 1 chicken breast (or any other cut of boneless chicken, about 200 grams) - we used minced pork instead
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 4 Thai chilies (we used chilli padi)
• 1 tablespoon oil for frying
• 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
• ½ teaspoon light soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 1 splash of dark soy sauce
• 1 handful of Thai holy basil leaves

(Hubby marinated the minced pork a night before with half tsp sesame, light sauce sauce 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce, a dash of pepper and threw in some basil leaves) - marinating the meat made it tastier but of course you may skip this marinate step if preferred but and just stir fry your meat with the above condiments.)

First, fry the egg

1. Heat about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan on high-medium heat.
2. When the oil is hot and sizzling, drop in the egg. Let it sizzle and bubble up, and at the same time, splash some of the hot oil onto the top of the egg (don't flip the egg, unless you really want to).
3. After the egg looks about right to your cooked likeness (I like mine runny), take it out, drain the excess oil, and put it on a plate for later.

Basil chicken

1. Cut the chicken into small bite sized pieces.
2. Rinse and peel the garlic and chilies, and pound them in a mortar and pestle (alternatively you can just mince them with a knife). They don't need to be super fine, you just want to bring out the oils and flavors from the garlic and chilies.
3. Pluck a good sized handful of holy basil leaves off the stems.
4. Now it's time to start cooking. Heat your wok on high heat, and add about 1 tablespoon of oil to the pan.
5. When the oil is hot, add the chilies and garlic. Stir fry them for about 20 seconds or so until they get really fragrant, but don't let them burn or get too dry.
6. Toss in your chicken. Keep stir frying continuously. At this stage you want to continue to stir and cook your chicken until it's just about fully cooked all the way through (depending on the size pieces of chicken and how hot your fire is, it should take about 2 - 3 minutes). If it starts to get dry, add just a tiny splash of water.
7. Add 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce, ½ teaspoon light soy sauce, ½ teaspoon sugar, and finally a splash of dark soy sauce. Keep stir frying for about another 30 seconds.
8. Grab a handful of holy basil, toss it into the pan, fold it into the chicken, and then immediately turn off the heat (if you're using an electric stove, you'll want to remove the pan from the burner). The holy basil really only needs to cook for about 5 seconds, and it will continue to wilt and cook from the existing heat of the chicken. This step is important because if you cook the basil for too long, it loses some of its glorious flavor and gets slightly chewy.

Mushroom Spaghetti

Not sure what's wrong with me, I did not use to like eating spaghetti but of late, I have been looking forward to cooking and eating spaghetti. Was surfing the net for some yummy spaghetti recipes and I found a yummy recipe by Noob Cook. Cooked it and love it.

If you love spaghetti, and you love mushrooms, you will love this mushroom spaghetti.

Mushroom Spaghetti
Recipe by Noob Cook

• 2 servings of spaghetti or your favourite pasta about 140-160grams
• 200 grams fresh button or favourite mushrooms stalks discarded and caps sliced thinly
• 10 cloves garlic peeled and sliced thinly
• 4 tbsp olive oil divided
• 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes (or substitute with finely chopped chilli padi)
• 20 grams butter cubed
• 20 grams Italian flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
• sea salt to taste
• freshly cracked black pepper to taste

1. Bring a pot of water with 1 tbsp sea salt to a boil. Cook spaghetti until al dente (usually 2-3 minutes minus the recommended time). Drain and set aside the pasta, reserving a small cup of the pasta water.
2. Heat saucepan with 1 tbsp of olive oil. Add mushrooms, a pinch of salt and black pepper. Stir fry or saute until cooked, about 3 minutes. Set aside cooked mushrooms on a plate.
3. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in the same pan, add garlic and chilli padi/chilli flakes (if using). Saute the garlic until it starts to turn light golden brown.
4. Turn off the stove. The garlic will continue cooking in the hot oil on its own for a few more seconds in the hot oil, until they turn a lovely golden brown. Melt cubed butter in the garlic & oil mixture.
5. Add cooked pasta, chopped parsley, cooked mushrooms, sea salt and black pepper (to taste). Toss to coat all the ingredients evenly, adding some reserved pasta water to help the ingredients bind together.

Ground Beef Pizza with Capsicum & Cherry Tomatoes

Pizzas for dinner again after awhile.  I had my sis and BIL over for a casual dinner and treated them to some homemade pizzas.

The usual suspect, our favourite hawaiian pizza was surely one of the 2 pizzas served, and the 2nd being a ground beef pizza which I have always wanted to try and make :)

I topped it with some capsicums and cherry tomatoes that I have and made a colourful looking (IMO :P) ground beef pizza with capsicum and cherry tomatoes.  It was not too bad for a first try. Will add in some cut red chillies into the ground beef during the quick stir fry the next time and that should bring up the yummy level.

Ground Beef Pizza with Capsicum & Cherry Tomatoes

Toppings
200g ground beef
1 tbsp olive oil
A dash of salt
A dash of pepper
1 quarter yellow capsicum (sliced thinly)
4 cherry tomatoes (sliced thinly)
Half brown / yellow onion (sliced thinly)

1. Season ground beef with some black pepper and salt.
2. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan and do a quick stir fry of the beef to let it be half cooked, adding in more salt and black pepper if desired. Loosen up the beef pieces with your spatula. Set aside.


Crispy Thin Crust Pizza dough

(Makes 2 12-inch pizza dough)

1 pkg (.25 oz) Active Dry Yeast (7g)
¼ tsp Sugar
¾ Cup Warm Water (170g)
1 ¾ Cups All Purpose Flour (224g)
½ tsp Salt
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

*tomato pasta sauce or tomato puree

***Shredded Mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, Cheddar cheese (and Gouda cheese if preferred)

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 8 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine all purpose flour, salt, olive oil.
3. Add the yeast mixture.
4. Add well.
5. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead for 2 minutes. (If doing this base ahead of your party, cover dough in bowl with cling wrap and set it in the fridge till about 30min before you are ready to add toppings, let dough return to room temperature and punch out excess air and proceed with step 7)
6. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
7. Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a 12” circle.
8. Place one rolled dough on pizza pan, spread a thin layer of pasta sauce over one pizza base and put to bake for 10min at 230deg.
9. Spread a thicker layer of pasta sauce over half baked bread dough, leaving about 1.5cm of sides plain, add half cooked ground beef followed by a thick layer of cheese all over, and finally lay aliced cherry tomatoes and capsicums on cheese.
10. Bake at 500 Degree F (I baked at 230deg C for 25min) for 10 - 15 minutes or till done.

Orange Chiffon Cake

A light and citrusy cake after all the heavy and sinful meals of these 2 weeks of festive holiday celebrations. Here we are, ushered into the brand new 2016.  2015 wasn't too bad for me, and I hope this new year will be a better one for me, of cuz for my hubby, my family and everyone! 

No. Don't be mistaken. I aren't on a chiffon craze. It just so happened that I have some oranges on hands and I wanted to bake something simple for breakfast, hence this chiffon cake came along.

Using the zests of oranges and freshly squeezed orange juice, you can expect a zesty orange chiffon cake.  I haved baked this several times and orange chiffon cakes never disappoints!

I always enjoy peeping into my oven and see how my chiffon cake "grows" and fluff up into a pillowy soft whole chiffon cake!

Finally some wait and my orange chiffon cake is finally cooled, unmoulded and ready to be tasted!!!

An effortless deco using my home grown mint leaves to spruce up the otherwise plain chiffon photo.

I love how the kitchen is filled with the orangey aroma halfway through the baking.  That almost always get me excited and can never wait to cool it down, unmould and slice a piece of that zesty chiffon to taste.  It really makes a yummy tea time treat.

Orange Chiffon Cake
Bakes in a 21cm chiffon tube pan

Egg Yolk mixture
5 egg yolks
75ml olive oil 
30 g castor sugar
115g plain flour
95ml fresh orange juice 
Zest from 2 oranges

Egg white mixture
5 egg whites
70g castor sugar

1. Preheat your oven to 160deg C.
2. Sift plain flour and set aside. 
3. Combine egg yolks, olive oil, fresh orange juice and sugar and mix well.
4. Add in sifted plain flour into the mixture and mix well till no lumps. Mix in orange zest. Set aside.
5. Beat egg whites till frothy and add in castor sugar in 3 additions, beat well in between each addition. At the last portion of sugar addition, beat egg whites till stiff peaks.
6. Spoon 1/3 of egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and fold in gently till no whiteixture is visible, taking care not to deflate the mixture.
7. Add in remaining half of white mixture and continue to fold in, repeat with last portion of egg white mixture.
8. Pour mixture into chiffon pan. Drop pan twice on tabletop to get air bubbles dissipate from mixture. 
9. Put to bake at 160deg C for 1 hour or till done. To check done-ness, insert toothpick into cake centre, cake is done when toothpick comes out clean with no sticky batter.
10. Remove and invert chiffon pan to allow cake to cool before removing to slice. 

Tang Yuan (with Fresh Red Dragonfruit juice)

Today is Dongzhi Festival (Winter Solstice Festival) and many Chinese will celebrate this day by cooking a pot of glutinous rice balls (Tang yuan) and eating them together with the family.

This year I skipped the artificial red food colouring and made pink tang yuan using red dragonfruit juice instead.

Love the colours of the dough as well as the cooked product.

Happy Dongzhi to All who's celebrating this day!

Glutinous Rice Dumplings (Tang yuan)

Glutinous rice flour
Water
Fresh red dragonfruit juice (mash some dragonfruit pcs on a sieve and retain juice that comes through)

Ginger Soup

Water
Brown sugar
3 to 4 pandan leaves, knotted
A pc of 1-inch ginger, peeled and pounded slightly to release the ginger fragrance

To cook ginger soup, place ginger and pandan leaves in water and bring it to boil till fragrant. Allow it to simmer for further 5min on medium heat.

To make Tang yuan, place glutinous flour into mixing bowl and add in enough water and mix dough with hands or a rubber spatula. Add in more water if too dry, more glutinous rice flour if too sticky. Dough is ready if it is soft and easy to handle without sticking to hands. It should somehow feel soft like earlobes. 

For pink dough, I added a tsp of the fresh red dragonfruit juice, then followed by enough water to get a soft and non stick dough. You can add in more juice if you want it a little more pink, but not too much because it will turn the dpugh into a purple hue.

Roll dough into little balls and set them on a lightly floured plate. Once done, cook them in a boiling pot of water. They are cooked when they float. Place cooked tang yuan into serving balls and spoon ginger soup over them. Serve immediately.

Durian Yule Log Cake

Again a maiden attempt at making X'mas log cakes.  I have always wanted to try making them but I was really lousy with roll cakes back then and did not want to do log cake with cracked roll cake (though I know it will be covered by the cream and all), but the thought of people seeing the insides when sliced stopped me from all of it.

Now thay roll cakes have been mastered, I gained the confidence to get the log cakes coming!  We were invited to my brother in law's house for a X'mas dinner and I definitely did not wanna go there empty-handed - so this log cake came about.

With the long roll cake baked, I sliced it into half and made 2 log cakes with it. Coated the insides and outsides with mao shan wang durian puree. *yummy*

One was brought to my brother in law's place and the other to my Mum's.

Bought these icing sugar figurines from the 100Yen shop in Japan during my recent Kyushu trip.

I had fun making and decorating these log cakes. Will definitely make them again because log cakes are terribly overpriced outside!!!

Durian Yule Log Cake

A
4 egg yolks
35g caster sugar
60ml water
40ml oil
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
80g plain flour

B 
4 egg whites
30g caster sugar
1 tsp corn flour

Durian filling
- (I doubled the below amount for outer log cake frosting)
250g durian puree
3 tbsp fresh milk (or more if required to thin durian puree to desired consistency)

1. Prepare 10inch by 10inch baking tray line with baking paper.  You may lightly grease baking tray with some cooking oil and then line baking paper to prevent baked cake from having "wrinkles".  Preheat oven to 170deg C. Prepare 2 other pieces of baking paper (slightly bigger size than baking tray) or use later after cake is baked.
2. Combine egg yolks and caster sugar in A and beat till egg yolk mixture turns white and pale, and air bubbles show up when beating stops.
3. Add in water, oil and vanilla essence and mix well.  Sift in plain flour and mix well.  Set aside.
4. Beat egg whites in a clean and dry bowl till frothy, add in corn flour and beat till combined.
5. In 3 separate additions, add caster sugar into egg white mixture and beat till stiff peaks form.
6. In 3 separate additions, spoon white eggs into yolk mixture and fold in carefully till a smooth batter forms (take care not to overfold and deflate the batter).
7. Pour batter onto lined baking tray and smooth out top with a scraper.  Put to bake at 170deg C for 14min or till done.  (Cake should spring back when pressed slightly, toothpick to come out dry when inserted into centre of cake, and when pressed gently there should be slight "sss" sound.  Overbaked cake will have cracks showing up when rolled.)
8. Remove tray from oven and overturn tray on 1 piece of baking paper atop a cooling rack. Remove the lined baking paper sticking on cake and cover cake with baking tray.  Let cool for about 10min or till cake is cool.  Remove baking tray.
9. Spread prepared durian filling all over cake, leaving about 1cm of far end clear of filling.
10. Roll up cake into a log shape with the help of bottom baking paper and twist sides of baking paper to hold the cake.  Rest rolled cake with the end at the bottom and leave cake in fridge for 15-30min before frosting the outsides with the remaining half of durian puree.
11. To assemble log cake, you can slice about an inch or 2 inch of rolled cake and placed it by one side of the rolled cake, or however you want your log cake to look like. Slap on the durian puree and frost away with a palate knife - does not matter if you cannot get a smooth frosting because you are gonna make log lines on the frosting anyway!
12. After the full frosting is done, use a fork and "draw" lines on the whole cake to make it look like a log.  Decorate with your favourite (clean!!! :P) Christmas figurines and refrigerate. You can dust the top of the cake with a light layer of icing sugar otherwise it is good to go. Best served chilled.

Soon Kueh

From young, I have always love eating kuehs. Koo chai kueh, peng kueh, soon kueh, you name it, I love it. Is it due to my dialect influence? Not sure though, but I do know I grew up eating lots of kuehs.

Drizzle sweet black sauce (and some sambal chilli if you have them) over the steamed hot soon kueh and enjoy!

My grandmother used to make the kuehs for us all and we have them for breakfast. Later stage my Mum learned the skills of kueh making and then made them.  Somehow, this is like a passing baton. Now I make kuehs too.

I was lazy gathering all different flours (rice flour, sago flour etc) for these soon kuehs , and so I took the easy way out - get a pack of ready mix soon kueh flour!

Maiden attempt in making soon kuehs and it turned out not too bad. Hubby tried and enjoyed it. Mum feedbacked that filling would taste better with dried mushrooms added, otherwise all is okay being a first try.  Practice makes perfect and I'll definitely make them again because Hubby and I love eating soon kuehs!

Soon Kueh

Soon Kueh skin
I used Skytime brand Soon Kueh flour (400g a pack)
Reserving about 30g to 50g of Soon Kueh flour for dusting
 Add adequate amount of boiling water to mix flour together (using a spatula or a pair of chopstick). Knead dough till pliable and smooth. Divide dough into 32g portions and roll them into balls.

To wrap, flatten and roll out each 32g ball dough into circular skin of about 2mm thick. Spoon 1 tbsp of filling onto centre of soon kueh skin and bring centre of soon kueh skin together, then press both sides of skin to seal gaps. Set on light greased pan. Repeat the same till skin or filling is used up.  Allow about 1 inch of space in between each soon kueh.

Put steamer to boil.  Before setting soon kueh to steam, brush top of kueh with oil. Put to steam for 10min on medium high heat.

Drizzle soon kueh with sweet dark sauce and chilli and serve.

To store, allow steamed soon kueh to cool completely then place into airtight containers and refrigerate (you can line baking paper in between to prevent sticking). If you are not able to consume it within 3 days, freeze soon kueh and re-steam it when needed.


Soon Kueh Fillings
(Recipe by Mrs Leong Yee Soo of Everyday Favourites) - I doubled the amount for fillings

455g jicama (bangkuang)
3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp minced garlic (I used 10 garlic)
1 tbsp yellow bean paste (taucheo) (I kept to just 1 tbsp with the doubled filling portion)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp MSG (Optional - I did not use this)
1/2 tsp salt
115ml water (I used the water from soaking dried shrimps, top up with tap water till the desired amount if not sufficient)
55g dried shrimps (rinsed, soaked, drained and roughly chopped)
170g prawn (Optional - I did not use this)
I added 1 tsp of pepper and 3 tbsp fried shallots to enhance the taste of the filling.


1. Peel and slice jicama into thin strips, immerse in water and drain.
2. Heat oil in a pan and fry garlic until light brown. Add yellow bean paste,sugar, MSG if using) and salt and fry for a moment.

3. Add the water, dried shrimps and prawns (if using) and bring to a boil.

4. Add the jicama, stir and cook over moderate heat until almost dry.  Stir in pepper and fried shallots till well mixed. Set aside to cool before use.

Thai Milk Tea Chiffon Cake

Of all the many types of cakes out there, chiffon cakes still remain my favourite.  Soft, fluffy and light tasting, how can one not love it? 

Though easy on the palate, this cake is not easy to be attempted - but fret not, learn the skill of folding in and you are on your way to making your own lovely chiffon cakes.

I have not got any store bought chiffon cakes ever since the day I baked my first successful chiffon cake. I love how I can skip using cream of tartar, lessen sugar content, use healthier oil and coming up with chiffon cake flavours that I cannot get from bakeries.

This round, I made a chiffon cake in Thai Milk Tea flavour with the instant Thai Milk tea sachets I bought during my last Bangkok trip. Milk tea taste did not come through much but I love the colour of the baked product. It was just how Thai Milk Tea looks like haha! Soft and fluffy as usual.  No regrets in trying this out.

Maybe I should try using 2 sachets next time, then cutting down on the sugar amount for yolk mixture - just to see if the Thai tea tastes more obvious!

Thai Milk Tea Chiffon Cake

Egg yolk mixture
5 egg yolks
20g sugar
30g oil 
60g Thai Milk Tea (In a cup of 60ml hot water, stir in a sachet of Thai Milk Tea and let cool before use)
100g plain flour

Egg white meringue
5 egg white
60g sugar

1. Combine egg yolks and sugar and mix well with a whisk till sugar is dissolved.
2. Stir in oil and cooled thai milk tea, whisk till combined before adding in sifted plain flour and mix well till no clumps are present.
3. In a separate clean and dry mixing bowl, add in egg white and beat till large bubbles are formed. In 3 additions, add in sugar. Make sure to beat till sugar is dissolved in between each addition. Stop when the white mixture reaches stiff peak stage.
4. In 3 additions, fold in egg white meringue into yolk mixture in a one gentle direction, taking care not to over fold and deflate mixture.
5. Pour cake mixture into chiffon tube pan and put to bake in a preheated oven and bake at 160deg C for 1 hour or till done. Remove pan and invert to let cake cool before removing and slicing.

Japanese Garlic Fried Rice

On days that you feel lazy to do anything, and even whip up a 3 dishes and 1 soup meal for your hubby and yourself, what would you do?  Well, for us, we will do the fried rice option.  

Fast and easy, and you wil get to eat in no time. We had Japanese Garlic Fried Rice during our recent Kyushu vacation and we love how simple, yet yummy their fried rice were. I knew I had to try to cook it when I am when here and so I attempted it.  Not too alike to what we had in Japan but was still yummy because you will not go too wrong with garlic and spring onions fried with rice yeah? :P

A few easy ingredients and you can cook up this fried rice fast.

Japanese Garlic Fried Rice

2 cups of Japanese short grain rice
(rinsed and cook accordingly, then set aside to cool before use. Can cook rice a night before and set into fridge when cooled to be use the next day - loosen rice rice up before use)

1/2 tbsp olive oil + 2 tbsp olive oil

1 or 2 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork

3 whole stalks of Spring onions, cubed

8 garlic, minced

char siew, desired amount, cubed (optional))

1 tsp black pepper powder (or lesser, adjust according to taste)

1 1/2 or 2 tbsp light soy sauce (to taste)


1. Heat 1/2 tbsp oil and then add in beaten egg.  Quick fry egg into scrambled egg form by breaking it up and dish out scrambled egg onto a bowl.

2. Add in 2 tbsp olive oil and let it heat up before adding in minced garlic.  Stir fry till fragrant, do not let it come to brown.

3. On high heat, add in spring onion bits and char siew cubes and stir fry till fragrant and well mixed before adding in cooled rice. Stir well to get all ingredients well mixed with rice.  Finally add scrambled egg.

4. Spoon in desired amount of light soy sauce and stir fry well to coat each rice bits evenly.  Do a taste test at this stage.

5. Stir in black pepper powder evenly, dish out and serve immediately.

Espresso Muffins with Chocolate Chips

As one grows older, taste in food changes, and that's speaking from experience. Muffins were not my favourite before, same goes for coffee but now, I love muffins, and I love coffee even more! Anything coffee goes for me so I definitely had to make muffins, the coffee way.

Here I used espresso coffee but was a tad disappointed that the coffee taste did not come through that much. Chocolate chips added kinda took over the overall taste, making it more like chocolate chip muffins. Nevertheless, I still would like to share it here, for those who love coffee, but nt too strong tasting though.

Moist and soft centre muffins 

for our breakfast

Espresso Muffins with Chocolate Chips
Adapted from Ellena Guan's Chocolate Chip Muffins, with slight variations

Makes 6 Regular Muffins (I made 10 small muffins)

Dry Ingredients - (A) 
• 165g All-purpose Plain Flour
• 2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt

Wet Ingredients - (B)
• 1 Large Egg (60g)
• 70g Caster Sugar
• 120ml Espresso coffee without sugar (cooled to room temperature)
• 60ml Vegetable Oil
• 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla extract 


• Desired amount of chocolate chips for mixing or sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (392°F) and line muffin tins with muffin liners or alternatively grease muffin tin. 

2. Stir Ingredients (A) together in a bowl till well-mixed and set aside. 

3. Whisk Ingredients (B) together using a hand whisk starting with egg and sugar till combined then followed by the rest.

4. Pour mixture (B) into (A), using a spatula gently fold mixture to combine until no trace of flour is found (the batter will be thick and lumpy so do not over mixed it). 

5. Lastly fold in chocolate chips and spoon batter into prepared muffin tin all the way to the brim (do not 't worry the batter will not overflow). Top with optional chocolate chips or walnut on top before baking. 

6. Bake at 200°C for the first 5 minutes and then reduce temperature to 180°C for another 25 - 30 minutes until surface is browned and a skewer inserted in the center and comes out clean. 

7. Remove muffin tin from the oven and allow the muffins to cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes before removing it on a wire rack.