[recipes] 5 Healthy Drinks With Honey

With festive feasts and New Year approaching, I am sure you like to add some detox drinks to your diet in order to cleanse your body and boost up the immune system. Trust us; making your own Detox Drink is pretty easy as you probably have most of the ingredients in your kitchen.

In this post we have prepared a few drinks that can be served alongside with breakfast, teatime or main course which I hope it will be useful for you.

WORLDFOODS International Fusion Recipe Swap Challenge

Fusion Thai Food using WORDFOODS Sauces and Marinade

These days there are a lot of fusion cuisines blooming up with fresh ideas waiting to be discovered. And with the variety of ready-made sauces and marinades which available in most supermarkets also make it stress less to prepare International cuisines such as Moroccan Chicken, Thai Tom Yum Soup, Singapore Fried Noodles and etc. In this write-up I would like to thank WORDFOODS for organising such International Fusion Recipe Swap Challenge to try out their products and as well as sharing (guest post) our recipes with another “penpal” from the other part of the world (my “penpal” is Anita-Clare & Caro from Lover Of Flavours in the UK).

[3 recipes] Thai-style Steamed Pomfret, Seafood Tom Yum and Thai Basil Minced Pork

Seafood Tom Yum and Thai Basil Minced Pork

Most of us who loves Thai cuisine are usually fans of spicy and sour food. And in Thailand, Tom Yum Talay (hot and spicy seafood soup) is known for its health benefits and is often equivalent to the chicken noodle soup which we used to have it when we are not feeling well. Moreover this delicious one pot soup is also pretty easy to make once you have all the necessary ingredients.

In this post, I would be sharing 3 common homecook Thai dishes which you can easily prepare them at home with ingredients that are available from leading supermarkets or Thai grocery stalls.  

[Recipe] Lime And Chilli Roasted Snapper

Although I do enjoy both baking and cooking as a hobby as well as a way to express my love for my family through food. But there are also days where I am on my down-side with no inspirations or mood to do anything. Moreover I just don't feel like spending more than an hour to prepare a meal with 2 dishes and a soup with lot of washing to be done, so the easier way is to settle for a quick one dish meal.

LIME AND CHILLI ROASTED SNAPPER

Last two weeks due to long weekend holidays (Hari Raya and Singapore National Day) plus I was busying with some bakes (durian hokkaido chiffon and durian butter cakes),  I decided to make good use of the oven since it had already being warm up after the bakes. So instead of using the usual steaming  method to prepare the fish, what I did was,  place the prepared fish into the oven and baked till it was cooked. Surprisingly the baked fish taste so juicy and yummy just like using steaming method too. 

(Serves: 2   | Preparation: 10 minutes  | Cooking: 20 minutes)

Ingredients:

• *1 Whole Snapper (800g - 1kg), clean
• 5g Fresh Ginger, sliced thinly
• 2 Cloves Garlic, sliced thinly
• 4 - 6 fresh Kaffir Lime Leaves, shredded
• 2 Stalks Lemongrass, lightly pound and cut into sections
• 8 Cherry Tomato, halves
• *1 Long Red Chilli, sliced thinly
• 1/2 Cup loosely packed Coriander Leaves
• Some Peanut / Cooking Oil

Lime And Chilli Dressing
• 2 Tablespoons Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
• 1.5 Tablespoons Thai Fish Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Lime Juice
• 1 Teaspoon Peanut Oil

Note:-
* Instead use 2 x 500g Plate Size Snapper
* For spicy version use 2 bird eye chillies instead

Method:-
1. Preheat oven to 220°C (Degrees Celsius) and layer baking tray with foil and baking paper.

2. Rinse the fish thoroughly and pat dry with kitchen paper towel. Stuff a mixture of ginger, garlic, lime leave, lemongrass and chilli in the fish cavity.

3. Rub fish all over with oil and place it in oiled and lined baking tray, scatter reminding ginger, chilli, lemongrass, garlic, lime leaves and cherry tomato over it.

4. Roast, uncovered for 15 - 20 minutes or until cooked through. Meanwhile, prepare lime and chilli dressing by mixing the ingredients together.

5. When the fish is done, drizzle dressing over it, sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve with steamed rice.

Have a great Monday everyone!!!!

{5 New Recipes} Pre Chinese New Year Dinner Gathering

Last Saturday evening, a few of us get together to have an early Chinese New Year dinner over at my place. Although this was not the first time I prepared food for such as big group of friends other than my family,  I am still very nervous and a bit stress up with planning the dishes as well as preparations.

Thanks to Jacob and Shiting who initiate to help up with the Yusheng as well as preparing the ingredients for the dishes in order to put this dinner together. I hope everyone enjoys the meal and I apologize if the dishes are not up to expectations due to my clumsy hands and mind in the kitchen :)

Lemongrass And Zespri Kiwifruit Konnyaku Jelly

When you do a goggle search on "lemongrass jelly recipe" you will see a long list of choice to pick and experience on. Through the list, my favourite pick comes from Shirley's site at @Køkken (recipe), she shares a very easy recipe using "gelatine powder" instead of the Konnyaku Premix that I used which is not common in some countries. So for those who cannot get hold of the premix like what I used, perhaps you would like to try using Shirley's recipe if you are interested to make some.

LEMONGRASS AND KIWIFRUIT JELLY

I am sure you remember this cute Pooh shaped Lemongrass Jelly which I have shared from my previous post on Kiwi-licious Feast. I purposely made some using my boy's favourite "Winne The Pooh" shaped mould in order to make the jelly appealing to him in sight in order for him to try. So for mum who finds it difficult to get your picky eater into trying new food, perhaps make something with interesting characters they like will help. (for more kids meal ideas, read HERE)

Here I have simplify the steps and ingredients by using Konnyaku Premix Jelly Powder to make this refreshing jelly and you can add in some fruits such as kiwifruits, aloe vera, mini grapes and etc to enhance the flavour.

(Serves: 4-6 |   Preparation: 20 minutes   |  Chilling: 1 hour)

Ingredients:
1 Each of Zespri® Gold and Green Kiwifruits, cut into small cubes
6 - 8 Stalks of Lemongrass, halved and bruised
2 Knots of Pandan Leaves
1.5 Litres Water
1 Packet of Konnyaku Premix Jelly Powder

Method:-

1. Bring 1.5 litres of water to boil, add in lemongrass and pandan leaves, simmer the mixture for about 15 minutes on low heat. 

2.When done, switch off the heat, measure 1250ml of the lemongrass water (you can leave a few stalks of the lemongrass in it) and set aside to cool to room temperature.

3. Next stir in Konnyaku premix jelly powder into the cool lemongrass water, bring it to boil again on medium heat.

4. Remove from heat, stir till bubbles dissipate.

5. Half filled the jelly mould, topped with some chopped kiwifruits and filled it to the rim of the mould.

6. Cool to room temperature and keep refrigerate.

Personally I love the taste and fragrant of this lemongrass jelly because of it's light and refreshing taste. And for more creative way of making your jelly, you can add in canned fruits such as longan, fruit cocktails and served with ice cubes, or just served it as in it with more fresh cut fruits or etc. I am sure this will make a great party dessert too!

KIWIFRUIT CHIFFON CAKE

(Upcoming Post)

Time flies, tomorrow is the last day of the "Zespri® 14 days Daily Scoop of Amazing Challenge (#14daysofZespri)" and to mark off the finale of this challenge I would be sharing my last experiment using Zespri® Kiwifruit to bake a "Kiwifruit Chiffon Cake". For a challenge I have used fresh Kiwifruit Puree instead of the usual kiwifruit jam recipe shown online. So if you are interested, stay tune for the recipe tomorrow!

{Zespri Kiwifruits Feast} Apple, Kiwifruit Mint Smoothie, Baked Drumlets With Kiwifruit, Spicy Penne with Salmon and Kiwifruit plus Lemongrass Jelly with Kiwifruits

I am sure those of you who has being following my threads on the various social media platforms (such as facebook, twitter and instagram) would have been seeing me updating a lot of "kiwifruits" related posts for the past one week. (so sorry if I have "spam" some of your timelines :p ) As you have read from my previous post(s), this year I am taking up the "Zespri® 14 days Daily Scoop of Amazing Challenge (#14daysofZespri)" to test out how creative I can work with these "fuzzy brown fruits" to incorporate them into our daily diet.

So over the past weekend, I have come out with a 4 Course Kiwi-licious Menu starting with:- Apple, Kiwifruit And Mint Smoothie, Baked Drumlets With Kiwifruit And Mint, Spicy Penne With Salmon And Kiwifruit follow by a refreshing Lemongrass Kiwifruits Konnyaku Jelly for dessert. In this post, I would be sharing the first 3 recipes whereas for the Lemongrass Jelly it would be featured in another post.

Grilled Chicken With Lemongrass and Basil Leaves

Here is another quick and easy Happy Call Pan (HCP) dish which is inspired by one of my friend, Jaiyi through her instagram photo(HERE). We all loved this "Grilled Chicken with Lemongrass And Basil Leave" where the chicken meat is so tender and infused with the unique aroma of the lemongrass and Thai basil. But if you can't get hold of Thai Basil, free feel to replace it with Parsley which is originally used in Jaiyi's recipe.

GRILLED CHICKEN WITH LEMONGRASS AND BASIL LEAVES

As for those who don't have a HCP, you can always bake this dish using an Oven which you might perhaps need to roast it for a longer timing in order to get it cook. Or if you prefer easy cooking, you can also replace whole chicken with parts such as mid-joint, drumsticks or etc depending on your preference too.

(Serves: 4   | Preparation: 10 minutes   |  Marinate: 2 hours  |  Cooking: 30 - 35 minutes)

Ingredients:
1 Chicken (1.2kg), portion into halved without cutting through
2 Stalks Of Lemongrass, lightly pound and sliced
1/2 Tablespoon of Black Peppercorns, crashed
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
3/4 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
3 Tablespoon Cooking Wine (Hua Diao Jiu)
Handful of Thai Bail, roughly chopped
3 Stalks Lemongrass, cut into sections

Method:-

1. Clean and rinse the chicken, pat dry with kitchen paper towel and rub the salt all over the chicken together with the mixture of oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and cooking wine.

2. Next stuff 3/4 of the lemongrass and basil mixture in the chicken cavity(refer to the photo above) and tie it up using a baking string(you can find it in daiso or baking shop).

3. Sprinkler some crashed black peppercorns on the chicken and top with remaining lemongrass mixture. Marinate the chicken in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight to get the flavour through the meat.

4. Place extra lemongrass and chicken (remove the string and lay it flat, skin side up) in the Happy Call Pan (HCP), cook over medium heat (LOCK) for about 15 minutes, flip the pan over and cook for another 10 - 12 minutes.

5. Flip the pan back. Unlock and cook for another 8 - 10 minutes to get a nice golden crispy outer skin. (total cooking time might varies depending on the size of the chicken)

So if you or your family loves chicken dishes, this might be something quick and easy which you would like to consider whipping up over the weekend and share some family time by having simple homecook dishes together.

Tom Yum Talay (Hot And Sour Seafood Soup)

Have being craving for Clear Tom Yum Soup ever since my cruise trip back from Phuket where we had an enjoyable authentic Thai dishes for lunch over at Surin Beach (will share more on my Phuket trip in upcoming post soon). Initially I bought a packet of tom yum "seasoning" from Phuket which I wanted to try but after seeking some advice from Amy (Mothering Corner), I decided to try out her recipe using fresh ingredients instead of instant tom yum paste or seasoning.

Thai Green Curry Roast Chicken

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The quickest way to enjoy a bowl of comfort curry dish at home is by using curry paste that is easily available at major supermarkets. In Singapore there are many different types of curry pastes ranging from Chinese(Singapore curry, nonya curry), Malay(rendang, kari ayam), Indian(fish curry), to international choice of Japanese, Thai and etc.

Here we are using Thai Green Curry paste which is best with chicken(recipe HERE), pork or seafood whereas Thai Red Curry works best with beef, lamb or oily fish such as salmon.