Blueberry Pancakes

If you remember in early July this year, I have shared a post on 3 different Durian recipes (read more HERE) where one of it is making Durian Pancake. Here using a similar recipe I have whipped out some delicious Blueberry Pancakes for our weekend breakfast. And for those staying in Singapore, does this look familiar to you like one of the KFC AM Breakfast - Blueberry Pancakes?

So if you like pancakes, blueberry, honey and cheese do try this recipe and I am sure you would love it as much as we do.

BLUEBERRY PANCAKES

(Yield: 6, 12 cm pancake | Preparation: 5 minutes | Cooking: 10 minutes)

Ingredients:
100g Plain Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Double Acting Baking Powder
180ml Fresh Milk/Buttermilk
1 Egg, 60g
70g Caster Sugar
Pinch of Salt

Filling And Garnish:
80g Fresh/Frozen Blueberry
Plain Yogurt/Cheese Wedges
Honey

Method:-

1. Sift plain flour and double acting baking powder together.

2. Beat egg and sugar until creamy and fluffy (about 3 - 4 minutes) before stirring in the flour mixture.

3. Next add in remaining ingredients, mix well to form a smooth batter.

4. Set batter aside in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Remove stir-in the blueberry and get ready the frying pan for cooking.

5. Heat up a non-stick pan, lightly grease it with cooking oil and add in 2 tablespoon of batter, swirl pan and cook the pancake over medium low heat.

6. Turn the pancake over when you see large air holes appearing on it and cook for another 1 minutes or less depend on its thickness.

7. Spread some some cream cheese or top with cheese wedges on the pancake, drizzle some honey over it and serve immediately with some extra blueberry according to your preference.

[Breakfast Ideas] Poached And Soft-Boiled Eggs with Toast

What do you usually have for your breakfast. In Singapore most of us love to have Coffee with toast and soft boiled egg either at home, coffee shop or etc. And the most common hang out will be either at Ya Kun or Toast Box where they serve pretty good toast with soft boiled egg.

Here I will be sharing two quick and easy recipes on how to prepare Toast with Eggs like those western style breakfast serving in most cafe where you can impress your family members during weekend breakfast.

Most of us know that Eggs have excellent nutritional value. They contain protein which is needed for building and repairing the cells in muscles and other body tissues as well as supply valuable minerals and vitamins. Since my boy loves egg(he eats at least 1 egg per day) we usually have at least a tray at home every week. Recently I got a box of this new CP Chilled Fresh Eggs which are known to be sanitised, oiled and chilled within one hour of being laid to ensure that the supreme freshness from the farms is sealed and kept within the eggs.

These eggs are packed in a transparent tray with size range from 65 - 70g per egg that cost S$2.50 per box of 6 Large Eggs. And on the packaging it is also stated that these eggs contain lesser cholesterol than ordinary eggs, and have a lifespan of up to 90 days! As you can see from the photos below, the egg yolk of these CP Chilled Fresh Eggs is rather more firm and orange in colour compared to the normal yellow yolks that we used to see. And we also find that it taste more fragrant while eating poached or soft-boiled too. If you are interested to give it a try, these eggs are available at all Cold Storage, NTUC Finest, Meidiya and Carrefour currently.

You can achieve different texture of soft-boiled egg according to your preference by timing the simmering time such as 5 minutes for medium-boiled and 7 minutes for hard-boiled (mine was about 3 1/2  to 4 minutes as I prefer it to be a bit runny for dipping my toast). The reason for stirring egg occasionally also helps the yolk to stay centered in the egg for even distribution.

SOFT-BOILED EGGS

Ingredients: (serve 2)
2 Fresh Egg, at room temperature
Multi-grain toast fingers, to serve

Method:-

1. Place eggs in a medium saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to boil over high heat, stirring occasionally.

2. Reduce heat to medium(once the water boil) and simmer for 3 minutes.

3. Remove pan from heat, using slotted spoon transfer eggs to egg cups.

4. Using a teaspoon, carefully remove tops from eggs and serve with toast fingers and extra sides(optional).

In Poaching method, the egg is cracked into a bowl then gently slid into a pan of simmering water and cooked until the egg white has almost solidified but the yolk still remains soft. And this is a healthy way of consuming fresh egg without using at oil or fat in it's preparation.

POACHED EGGS

Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 Teaspoons White Vinegar
2 Fresh Eggs, at room temperature
Butter Toast, to serve

Method:-

1. Pour cold water into a large saucepan at least 8 - 10cm deep. Add in white vinegar and bring to boil over medium heat.

2. Reduce heat to low(water should still be simmering around the edge with tiny bubbles).

3. Crack 1 egg at a time into a shallow bowl, using a spoon stirring water to create a whirlpool. (stir about 5 - 6 rounds)

4. Slowly tip egg into water while with the whirlpool spinning and for 2 minutes for soft yolk or 3 minutes for firm.

5. Using a slotted spoon, remove egg from water, drained well and serve it on toast.

6. Skim foam from water and poach remaining egg.

For this recipe, try to use fresh egg for poaching as the egg white will be at its thickest and it will produce a good shape. Whereas stirring the water with spoon also keeps the egg rounded while adding vinegar to the water helps to set the egg white quickly too.

[Sandwich Sealer Giveaway] Bread Pockets Bento Set

Thanks to those of you who participated in the "Gyoza Mold Giveaway" event which is ending on coming Monday, 18 April 2011. Here I am having another “Giveaway” which consists of a “Sandwich Sealer plus Heart Shaped Food Picks”. With this sandwich sealer you can make your favourite sandwich with all kind of fillings from sweet to savory without worrying that the fillings will drop-off from the sides and etc.

If you are interested to win a set of this "Sandwich Sealer plus Heart Shaped Food Picks", just leave your Name and with a type of your favourite sandwich filling (tuna, egg mayonnaise, jam) "I love xxxxx" in the comment box and I will pick ONE Lucky winner on Wednesday, 20 April 2011. Do check the result after Noon, 21 April 2011.

I have a few different types of Sandwich Sealer/Cutter at home which we usually use to rotate around when making sealed/opened sandwich for our breakfast or picnic. Here I use the sandwich sealer shown below to make some ham and egg sandwich serve with chocolate chips cookies, chocolate, apple and drink for a quick lunch before my boy goes to his Sunday class.

Method:-

1. Warm the bread in the microwave oven according to the instruction menu (shown at the back of the sandwich sealer packaging). Place the bread onto the center of the frame, then place your desire filling onto the bread. (refer to the step by step photos above)

2. Warm another slice of bread in the microwave oven, cover the first bread and filling with this bread by aligning its placement with the first bread.

3. Place the bread cutter onto the bread.

4. Carefully press the bread cutter downwards.

5. Hold up the bread crust while holding down the bread cutter to see if the crust has been thoroughly cut.

6. Remove the bread cutter and the entire crust from the mold and the sandwich should be completely sealed.

Ok, that's all for this simple post. Have a great weekend everyone and if you are interested to win a set of this Sandwich Sealer plus Heart Shaped Food Picks, do start leaving your comments now :) Have Fun everyone!


[Updated on 21 April 2011]

GIVEAWAY RESULTS!!!!!

GIVEAWAY RESULTS ARE OUT! Are you the Lucky One!!!!!

Warm Mixed Fruits Breakfast Oats

  December school holiday has finally come to an end and tomorrow it will be a brand new school terms for most of the students. Furthermore I am sure for those parent(s) whom has a child that goes Primary 1 this year, these few days would be a challenging days for both the kid and parents. Take me as an example, I have being worrying for my boy 1st day of school since early December so I guess tomorrow would bound to be an excited and stressful day for both of us.

Since breakfast is a very important meal to start off for the day especially for young school kids. I would like to share with you one of my boy's favourite oatmeal dish that he usually takes in the morning.Perhaps this would add-on some ideas to your usual breakfast list especially in recent cozy rainy seasons too.

Research shows that Daily consumption of a bowl of oatmeal can lower blood cholesterol due to its soluble fiber content. So having a bowl of this quick and easy oatmeal with your desire toppings would be definitely a great choice to start off the day.

Ingredients: (Serve 2)

1/2 Cup Quaker Quickcook Oatmeal
1 1/2 Cups Fresh Milk
1/3 Cup Dried Mixed Fruits and Nuts
2 Tablespoons Honey

Method:

1. Place oatmeal and milk in a saucepan and cook over medium low heat.
2. When the mixture comes to boil, keep stirring on and off for 1 minute or until slightly thicken and creamy.
3. Turn off the heat. Rest cooked oatmeal porridge in the saucepan for another 3 minutes to achieve a more smooth and creamy texture.
4. Divide the oatmeal porridge between bowls and top with dried mixed fruits and nuts, drizzle with honey and serve warm.

VARIATION:

~ Banana Topping:
1. Place 2 tablespoons of honey and some chopped nuts in a small frying pan and cook it over medium heat for 1 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add banana (1 large banana cut into sliced) in the honey mixture and toss well then serve the cooked oatmeal with banana toppings.

~ Mixed Berries Topping:
1. Place 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries(thawed) and 1 teaspoon brown sugar in a small bowl and mixed well then use it as topping.

But if you prefer something more savory like minced meat or fish porridge, don't worry you could always turn this sweet dish into something unique like one of my "Savory Oatmeal Porridge - 麥片粥". If you are interested to find out more about this recipe you could click this link HERE.

Hearts ‘IN’ Hearts

This coming Sunday 9 of May - "Mother's Day", will be a great day for every mothers' or mum to be. I am sure no matter which categories you fall into you are bound to enjoy this wonder moment with your love one. So for this post, daddy and little one can help to prepare this hearty breakfast to reward mummy for all her handwork.

Western breakfast is always the most easier to prepare as most of the ingredients such as Ham, Cheese, Bread and Egg can be easily found in the supermarket. Since this is prepared to reward all the lovely mummies, we use assorted hearts shape cookie cutters to stamp out different sizes of hearts using bread and cheese.

Ingredients:
2 Slices of Thick Bread
Butter
1 Egg
30g Shaved Ham
1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese, optional
Assorted Size Heart shape Cutters

Method:
1. Use a Medium heart shape cutter or knife to cut out a heart shape from the center of each slice of thick bread. (In this recipe, I use the thick bread with cranberry, which can be easily found in most local bakery)
2. Spread some butter on the surface of the cutout bread then pop them in the toaster oven together with the 2 heart-shaped cutout and toast for about 5 – 7 minutes till their slightly golden in colour.
3. Remove and set aside.
4. Heat up a small frying pan or saucepan with some oil, saute the shaved ham for a few second, removed and set aside.
5. With the same pan, add in 1 teaspoon of oil, swirl the oil around the pan, place one of the toast bread in the pan, slowly break the egg into the heart-shaped hole, cover the pan and cook the egg over low heat until the egg white turns opaque, about 3 minutes or so.
6. When done, slowly transfer the bread to the serving plate (careful not to break the egg) along with the heart-shaped pieces of cutout bread, which is prefect for dipping into the yolk.
7. Lastly, fill the 2nd piece of hollow heart-shaped bread with shaved ham and top with heart-shaped cheese cutout.

Serve this hearty breakfast with mum’s favourite beverage during this Mother's Day weekend to pamper her sight and taste bubs. I am sure she will be overwhelm by these Hearts...... Here I wish all the mothers and mother to be a Happy and heartwarming Mother's Day!!!

Nested Easter

Today is exactly 1 more week to Easter Sunday. Christians celebrate Easter Sunday because they believed Jesus rose from death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the fundamental principles and beliefs of Christianity and they celebrate Easter Sunday because they believe, Jesus died for their sin on the Cross-on Good Friday, buried and rose from death on Sunday.

Bento #9 - Bearish Bread

This morning, I made this Bearish Bread School Tea-Break Bento for Reyon. As I was kind of in a rush, I just made a simple and quick one as he requested bear shape bread. Luckily I have pre-cut the bread shape bread on the night before, so in the morning, I just sandwich the bread with his favour Nutella and top the surface of the bread with cheese slices as the ears and nose. And lastly, I used my newly bought mini smiley craft punchers to form the features. After the bread is done, I arrange some cherry tomatoes and grapes between the spacing in order to secure the bread from moving around and also to add more colours to the meal.

Upon seeing this when getting ready for school, Reyon even gave names to the 4 bears like: papa bear, mummy bear, ah ma bear and baby bears.......according to the different features he choose.

Bento #6 - Ham & Cheese Bear Sandwiches

Today's Bento breakfast will be simple Ham and Cheese Bear serve with some fruits. My son loves this small tangerine which is sweet and juice compare to Strawberry which he finds it a bit sour.

I made these ham and cheese bear sandwiches using the new Pooh Cutter which I have bought a few months ago. This set of cutter come in two different ring mould which allows you to cut out the shape of the face as well as the tiny features. While I use the mini pooh vegetable cutter to cut the pooh head cheese that place on top of the tangerine.

Bento #5 - Buttermilk Cinnimon Pancakes

Recently, I am into Bento making especially designing for Kid's meals. After admiring some of the blogger mummy making those cute and fantastic bento for their kids, I also have the motivation to start my very own bento making series for my dear son.

Over the time, I have collected some varieties of assorted cookie cutters and bento accessories which can enable me to do simple bento. If you are interested in bento making you can actually grab some simple bento accessories from Daiso which they have 4 branches over in Singapore, or you can purchase other unique items online.

For this weekend snack bento, I use the animal shape cutter to cut out a few Teddy Bears and Hippo from the Buttermilk Pancakes slices then decorate the features with some cut-out cheese. I also made some Strawberries Honey Mint Sauce to serve with the pancake.

Peanut Butter French Toast

Since today our Sunday service had being change to a later timing, I decided to make a hearty Breakfast for the day. After eating Peanut Butter French Toast from one of the Hong Kong cafe, I decided to try out this dish using my own method. But I didn't really managed to get that puffy and crunch bread like what I had eaten in that cafe :(

So from what you seen here, it's just normal sandwich bread that I spread with Peanut Butter and pan-fry with beaten egg then serve with extra honey and butter. In order to cut that that grease effect, I serve it with some orange wedges and grapes to make it more healthy.

P/s:
If anyone of you know any good and proof method for making this nice Hong Kong Style French Toast, do drop me an email/comment to advise me can? Thanks.

Danish Bread With Egg & Cheese

The texture of Danish Pastry is very similar to puff pastry's: flaky and buttery. Its main ingredients include yeast, flour, milk, and lots and lots of butter. To produce the trademark flaky texture, the dough is spread out thinly over a wide surface while generous amounts of butter is applied evenly on all areas, after which the dough is folded systematically and rolled. This tedious process is repeated several more times to achieve the flaky and buttery effect. Wow... these sounds tedious if making I am going to make this Bread at home but since I am not good at bread making, I decided to get a loaf of Danish Bread from the bakery instead :p


So for today's breakfast, we will have Danish Bread with Egg & Cheese. I just love the crispy and buttery fragrant of the bread when toasted..... it's so yummy no matter what you eat it with.... :)

Ingredients: (serves 2)
4 Slices of Danish Bread
2 Slices of Sandwich Cheese
2 Small/Medium Egg
2 Slices of Ham, optional

Methods:
1. Use a medium size cookie cutter to cut out a shape on two slices of bread and set aside.
2. Place 1 piece of bread on a square piece of foil which is slightly bigger than the bread so that you can wrap the 4 corners up when toasting.
3. Place the cheese and ham(if using) on the bread and top with another bread that is with a cut-out.
4. Crack the egg in a small bowl then slowly spoon it into the bread opening.
5. Next wrapped up the 4 corners of the bread and toast it in the oven toaster for about 5 - 8 minutes depend on how well you want the egg to be done.
6. When done, remove the toasted bread onto a serving plate and sprinkler some dried parsley and pepper then serve it with extra fruits or tomato if desire.

Notes:
a) You can use any kind of bread towards your liking or in your pantry.
b) Try to choose those thicker bread if not, you will need 3 slices so that the egg white will not overflow.

Winnie The Pooh English Breakfast

How will you react if you are serve with this Set of Assorted Pooh Design Breakfast during Sunday Morning. I am sure no matter if you are an adult or kid, you will definitely be delighted to see this and it will bring smile on your face for the rest of the day. But out of this set, I am still not perfect in the Pooh Sunny Egg because I don't really know how to handle the mould well to make the egg in good shape....... :(


I made these for Reyon this morning and the 1st reaction he had when he sees this is "Wow!!!! So many Bear Bear!!!!" I used the Pooh Bread Cutter for the Toast, the Pooh Egg Ring Mould for the Sunny Egg, Pooh Cookie Cutter for the Ham and Pooh Vegetable Cutter for the Apple Slices...... too bad i can't mould the Tomato in either Pooh Slices or Shape... :)

P/s: You can find the related post on the Pooh Utensils(click on link)

Penang Banjoo Hotdog

I had never tested the actual version of the Banjoo Hotdog. The photo you see is from what I made based on the details that my Penang Blog Pal, Ai Yen describe as. And according to her, the actual Banjoo Hotday had a very strong and fragrant butter and onion taste and it's only wrap with cabbage rather than the extra sausage that I added in :)


This breakfast doesn't required much ingredients and you can do the cutting the night before and just get ready the omelette skin and vegetables before assemble them.

Ingredients:
100g Cabbage, thinly shredded
2 Medium Onion, thinly shredded
30 - 40g Butter
Pepper for seasoning, optional
4 Hotdog Buns

Methods:
1. Saute the Onion with butter until it's slightly soft and fragrant then add in the shredded cabbage and continue to stir-fry for a few minutes until it almost cook and dry up.
2. You can season it some black pepper to enhance the favour if you wish.
3. Dish up and set aside.

Next you can prepare the Omelette skin to wrap the filling. You can use about 3 eggs with about 50ml of chicken stock or 50ml fresh milk depend you want a sweet or savoury skin. Divide the mixture into 4 portions and fry thin layer of omelette skin to wrap the fillings, you can drizzle tomato and mayo sauce on the filling before wrapping. Sandwich the egg roll with each hotdog bun and drizzle extra tomato and mayo sauce to serve.

Note:
a) You can add even chicken strips to strip-fry with the cabbage and served as the filling or you can wrap it with extra hotdog and top with cheese. Just substitute it with whatever ingredients that you prefer.