Oreo Butter Cake

First saw this cake from My Kitchen:My Laboratory a few months back and I had KIV this recipe for further experiment. Until recently, when I saw a few blogger trying out this recipe. I also have the urge to do it. At first I wanted to try out like what MyCoffee had did, which is baked the cake in smaller size like muffins. But then I was too greedy on the portion and it ends up all the batter overflows from the muffins cup :(


But on the next day when I get hold of more ingredients, I decided to follow what Angie did to make a 7" cake and finally I managed to get everything right. This cake is moist and with good texture of the cookies. For my preference I add in 2 Teaspoons extra of the Coffee Liquor(Kahula) for that mocha fragrant. But in this cake, the butter content is less so it won't be having those strong buttery cake fragrant.

Citrus Poppy Seed Syrup Cake

It had be a very long time since I wanted to try making this Citrus Poppy Seed Syrup Cake. It's a very common cake found in western country where they have different varieties of recipe on making this.

The seeds of the poppy are widely used as the popular "poppy seed" found in and on many food items such as bagels, muffins and cakes. The seeds can be pressed to form poppy seed oil, which can be used in cooking. The sales of poppy seeds is banned in Singapore due to the morphine content. Although the drug opium is produced by "milking" latex from the unripe fruits rather than from the seeds, all parts of the plant can contain or carry the opium alkaloids, especially morphine and codeine. This means that eating foods (e.g. muffins) that contain poppy seeds can result in a false positive for opiates in a drug test.


I got these Poppy Seeds from my best pal Tracy who bought it from one of the spice shop in Malaysia. Thank Tracy or else I won't be able to try out this wonderful cake. Although the adding of poppy seeds doesn't seems to make any different to me but those who tried this cake all said that it's very nice so I guess it might be due to the content of the seeds...... :)

For those who wish to try this cake but cannot find the poppy seeds in Singapore. I also encourage that you can go ahead trying without adding it. Because the citrus favour without the Poppy Seeds will also make this a very good and moist afternoon Tea Time Cake. The combination of the citrus syrup with the cake really make it sweet, sour and fragrant.

Ingredients:
250g Butter, chopped
3/4 Cup Castor Sugar
3 Eggs
1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Essence
1 1/2 Cups Self-Raising Flour
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Cup Poppy Seeds
1/4 Cup(60ml) Fresh Milk
2 Tablespoons Mixed Citrus Juice
1 Tablespoons Grated Lemon & Orange Rinds

Methods:
1. Cream butter and sugar together on medium speed in a large bowl until light and fluffy.(about 5 - 8 mins)
2. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla essence/orange liqueur.
3. Sift flour and baking powder together, fold into creamed mixture with poppy seeds, milk, juice and rind.
4. Pour the mixture into a prepared 8" kugelhopf tin or round baking tin and smooth the top.
5. Bake in a moderate 180 degree oven for 50 - 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre and comes out clean and dry.
6. Pierce cake in several places with a skewer, spoon over half the syrup.
7. Allow to cool, remove cake from tin, transfer to a wire rack over a tray.
8. Pour over the remaining syrup and serve warm or cold with cream and fresh fruits of choice.

Citrus Syrup:
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup(60ml) Orange Juice
1/4 Cup(60ml) Lemon Juice

Methods:
1. Combine sugar and juices in a small saucepan.
2. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.
3. Reduce heat and simmer without stirring for 3 minutes.
4. Remove from stove and set aside.

Notes:
a) I replace the Vanilla Essence with 2 Teaspoons Grand Mariner(orange liqueur) because I want it to have more citrus favour.
b) You can add in more citrus juice if the final batter is too dry.
c) I mixed about 1 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to 5 tablespoons of batter some citrus juice to form a cocoa batter to do the swirl effect on this cake.(optional)
d) You can prepared the juice 5 - 10 mins before the cake is ready from the oven.

Claypot Minced Pork Rice

For those busy and working mum when you just got home from works and the kids are waiting for their dinner. You might want to give this easy and nutritious dish a try. You can use any kind of minced meat like chicken, beef or pork according to your preference. If you want it to have taste and look green you can even add in a few bunch of those Baby Bok Choy(xiao bai cai) to make it a complete one dish meal.


This is a super easy to prepare one pot dish and it works well in cold raining evening....... Be creative and add in whatever ingredients that you prefer to make your home cook 1 pot rice dish.
Ingredients:
200g Minced Meat
1 Chinese Sausage
1 Egg
1 Cup Uncooked Rice
1/2 - 3/4 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
Seasoning:
1/2 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1/2 Tablespoon Cooking Wine/Mirin
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Teaspoon Cornstarch

Methods:
1. Wash and remove the plastic skin from the Chinese sausage then cut into thin slices and set aside.
2. Marinate the minced meat with seasoning then set aside.(or you can marinate it on the night before)
3. Wash and cook rice in a claypot with a few drops of oil over low-medium heat by absorption method.
4. Midway through cooking when the water starts to go below the rice level, arrange the sausage slices around the side of the claypot.
5. Drizzle the 1/2 to 3/4 Tablespoon of Dark Soy Sauce onto the rice.
6. Then spread marinated minced meat on top of rice, leaving a hole in the centre.
7. Cover and cook for another few minutes(3 - 5 minutes depending on the thickness of the meat you spread) until you see the meat turn white or half way cooked through.
8. Crack an egg or two into the centre and cooked(covered) for 1 - 2 more minutes, till the white is set but the yolk is still slightly runny.
9. Remove the cover, sprinkle some chopped spring onion, chillies and dried shallot on top of the meat and mix well before serving.
10. You can also serve it with an extra dish of cut chillies with dark soy sauce for dipping.

Notes:
a) You can use either pork, chicken or beef minced meat depend what you prefer.
b) The water used in claypot is 1 cup rice= 1 3/4 cups water
c) The reason to add oil into the rice it to prevent it to be too soft and stick to the pot.
d) Prepare some chopped spring onion & chili as garnish.
e) If you wish to add in green vegetables, add in at the same time with the egg and drizzle some sesame oil on it to that the vegetables will not taste blend.

Animal Pasta

It had being a long long time that I didn't post anything on Toddler Meal. You must be wondering what are the things that I always feed my dear reyon. Actually when kids get older, they tend to share what we eat so it's rather common that we don't really make just something special for them. But recently I found these cute little animal pasta from one of the supermarket. So I decided to get it home for Reyon and not surprised he loves them. Especially those little turtle, he even started to count how many turtle he had eaten during his meal.


Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Uncooked Animalet
2-3 Pieces Of Pork Ribs/1 Chicken Drumstick
1 Medium Potato, cubes
1/2 Medium Carrot, cubes
1/2 Brown Onion, finely chopped

Methods:
1. Blanch the pork ribs or chicken drumstick in boiling water, rinse and set aside.
2. Heat up a small saucepan with 1 teaspoon of oil then saute the chopped onion until fragrant then add in the pork ribs, carrot and potato and stir-fry for a few minutes.
3. Add in suitable about of water(600ml) and bring it to boil then simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the potato and carrot are tender.
4. While preparing the soup stock, cook the Animalet according to the packet instruction then rinse with water and set aside.
5. When the soup is done, add in the cooked animalet and bring the soup to boil again, simmer for a few minutes then remove from stove and serve warm.

Red Raddish Soup

Have you ever seen this Holland Red Raddish in any of the supermarket or wet market before? I just bought one from NTUC after Tracy's recommending me to try on this soup which she got to learn from her mum. So far I still have not find out what is this Raddish good for, for those who had cooked this before. Maybe you wish to share your experience or recipe with us, you can email me. Thanks.

Ingredients:
300g Pork Ribs/Chicken Drumstick
1 Medium Size Holland Red Raddish, about 200g
10g Dried Longan,龙眼干
10g Dried Huai Shan,淮山
10g - 15g FoxNut,茨实
5g Gou Qizi,枸杞子
5 Red Dates, 红枣

Methods:
1. Wash and trim the pork ribs/chicken drumstick then blanch in boiling water, rinse and set aside for use.
2. Wash, peel the skin of the raddish and cut into thick wedges.
3. Rinse all the dried herbs and set side.
4. Bring 1 litre of water to boil, add in all the ingredients and bring to boil again then transfer it to a slow cooker and simmer over Auto Heat for about 2 - 3 hrs.
5. Season the soup with salt before serving.

Ondeh Ondeh WIth Shredded Coconut Fillings

My mother had being asking me to teach her how to make this Local Noya Kueh called Ondeh Ondeh which is commonly Jade Green in colour. Usually the normal Ondeh Ondeh will be wrapped with Gula Melaka sugar but not for this version that we are making today.


For this, I had follow the recipe from Lily's blog(please click for recipe) which she used shredded coconut mixed with gula melaka for the fillings. It's taste much more fragrant and with the busting favour. For those who is interested in trying out this, you can refer to Lily's blog link.

Sweet Lemon Pork Chop

There are all sort of ways and methods to cook Pork Chops and Pork Ribs. For eg: Sweet and Sour, Coffee, Beer and etc. Today I am trying a very simple way using Lemon slices and juice. The gravy taste just nice which is not sour as what we might thought because of the Lemon.


The original recipe used Spare Ribs but i replace it with Pork Loin Meat instead for the convenient of the kid. You don't need any of those fancy sauce, the main sauce ingredients are just Lemon, Tomato and Chilli Sauce.
Ingredients:
250g Of Pork Loin Meat/300g Spare Ribs
1/2 Fresh Lemon, thinly sliced
Marinade:
1/2 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Egg
1/2 Tablespoon Cornstarch
Sauce: (mix well)
2 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce
1 Tablespoon Chilli Sauce
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Sugar
125ml Water

Methods:
1. Rinse the spare ribs or pork chop and cut into convenient pieces.
2. Season with marinade for about 30 minutes or longer.
3. Dust with extra cornstarch and set aside for 2 minutes before deep-frying in hot oil and golden in colour.
4. Dish up and keep aside.
5. Cook the sauce mixture in the preheated wok until boiling, add in the meat and stir-fry over low heat until the sauce is thicken.
6. Lastly add in lemon slices and simmer for a while until the meat are well coated with sauce.
7. Dish up and serve hot with garnish.

Notes:
a) You can add 1/2 Tablespoon extra Lemon Juice to the sauce if you prefer a bit sour.
b) If using pork chop, wash and dry the pork cutlet with kitchen towel then use the back of the knife/or a meat mallet to flatten the pork before seasoning.
c) You can garnish with some spring onion, chilli strips or extra lemon slices.

Stir-fry Assorted Mushrooms With Roast Pork

Recently I really loves to stir-fry assorted mushrooms with different type of ingredients. My favour is the Shimeji Mushroom which is fragrant and smooth when cooked. I love to add in into soup noodles, stir-fry with oyster sauce or braised it with noodles.


In this assorted mushrooms dish, I used 4 different types of mushrooms which are Straw Mushroom, Shiitake Mushroom, Shimeji Mushroom & Enokitake together with some roast pork. If you want to have pure vegetarian dish then u can omit the meat.

Ingredients:
6-8 Honey Peas
1 Packet of Shimeji Mushroom
1 Packet Of Enokitake Mushroom
4 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms, soaked till soften
8 Straw Mushrooms, cut into halves
2 Slices Of Ginger
6 Slices Of Carrot
150g Roast Pork, optional
1 Tablespoon Oyster/Abalone Sauce
100ml Water
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch water

Methods:
1. Wash and trim all the mushrooms and honey pea then set aside.
2. Preheat a pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, stir-fry the roast pork for a few minute until abit crispy on all sides then remove and set aside.
3. Next saute the ginger until fragrant then add in the honey pea, carrot and shiitake mushroom, sitr-fry for a few minutes.
4. Add in the rest of the mushrooms and oyster sauce then pour in about 100ml and let it simmer on low heat for a while then thicken it some cornstarch water and serve.

Stir-fry Bittergourd WIth Prawns & Salted Egg

Saw this interesting dish from Lilian's Blog(Food Heaven). She had it on a local coffee shop stall and had briefly share the idea and recipe on how to replicate this dish. I had never used salted egg as a seasoning for dish before and this is my very first time.


So far whenever I cooked this stir-fry bittergourd dish, I always followed what my dad did as to add in prawns and egg then season with some oyster sauce. So the adding of salted egg is really something new for this dish. I follow the guideline from what Lilian had mention and come up with my own version.

Ingredients:
1 Small Bittergourd, about 150g
100g Minced Pork/Pork Slices
6-8 Medium Prawn, shelled and devein
1 Salted Egg
1 Fresh Chicken Egg
3-4 Garlic Cloves, minced

Methods:
1.Remove seeds from the bitter gourd and slice it thinly before rubbing it with with 1 teaspoon of salt and rinse well with water.
2. Crack the salted egg in a bowl, remove the egg yolk and mashed it with a folk to break up into pieces, do keep the egg white for later use.
3. Preheat a pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, saute the garlic until fragrant, add in pork and prawn and stir-till half done.
4. Add in the bittergourd and salted egg yolk, stir for a few second until the yolk changes colour then add in 100ml water and let it simmer for about 2 minutes.
5. Lastly add in the salted egg white and fresh egg, stir until well combine. Dish up and serve.

Notes:
a) The salted egg should be able to flavour the dish, you might need 2 salted eggs if you used a lot of bittergourd.
b) The end result of the dish should be mushy dish with lots of eggs.

Steam Herbal Chicken With BRAND’S® Chicken Essence

Since I had a few bottles of BRAND’S^® Essence of Chicken left in the cabinet, I thought of giving this dish a try. The original dish used Frog and Chicken Essence while I replace it with Chicken and some extra herbs to boost the favour as well as the fragrant.

Ingredients:
1/2 portion of a medium chicken
3 Slices Of Ginger, shredded
1 Bottle Of BRAND’S Chicken Essence
3-4 Slices Of Dang Gui(当归)
4 Red Dates(红枣)
1/2 Tablespoon Gou Qizi(杞子)
Marinade:
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Cooking/Rice Wine
10g Finely Grated Ginger

Methods:
1. Rinse the chicken, pat-fry and season with marinade for at least 30 minutes or more.
2. Arrange the marinated chicken on the plate together with the herbs, cover with foil and steam for about 15 minutes.
3. Remove from the steamer, pour in the chicken essence over the chicken, cover the foil and steam for another 15 to 20 minutes until the thicker part of the chicken is tender.
4. Remove the chicken, braised it with the chicken essence sauce and serve immediately.

Notes:
a) You can used any favour of the Chicken Essence.
b) You may omit the extra herbs if you find it too heaty.

Stir-fry Cabbage With Golden Mushroom & Woodear

Woodear is a type of mushroom that resembles a large ear when it is fresh and grows as large as half a foot. The surface of the mushroom is purplish-gray in color and the flesh is a dark purplish gray to almost black in color. They have a slightly crunchy texture and delicate, almost bland flavor that more often than not absorbs the taste of any strongly flavored ingredients with which they are cooked. They have both fresh and dried wood ears sold in the supermarket, the dried one usually look like brownish-black, dried chips. Upon soaking in water it might increase 5 to 6 times in size and resemble the shape of an ear. Wood ears are mainly popular in stir-fries and soups.


Saw a few kinds of mushrooms on sales from the local supermarket. So I decided to grab hold of 1 packet of Fresh Woodear and 1 packet of Korean Golden Mushroom. I found that the Golden Mushroom was very special, it's kind of like the normal Enokitake(金针菇), but in shorter and brown in colour. My son said it looks like little matchsticks.

Ingredients:
1/2 Small Beijing Cabbage(北京包菜)
1 Packet Korean Golden Mushroom
2 Pieces of Fresh Woodear(黑木耳), cut into thin strips
1 Small Carrot, cut into thin slices
2 Slices Of Fresh Ginger
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce

Methods:
1. Cut the cabbage into bite size then soak in water for about 5 minutes, rinse and set aside.
2. Cut the stalk off from the golden mushroom, rinse in water, drain and set aside.
3. Preheat the pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, saute the ginger until fragrant then add in the cabbage and carrot.
4. Stir-fry for a few minutes then add in the woodear and oyster sauce, stir for another few second then add 100ml water.
5. Cover and let it simmer on medium low heat for 5 minutes then add in all the mushroom and cover, continue to simmer for another 3 minutes.
6. Slowly add in some cornstarch water to thicken the sauce then dish and serve.(you might not need all the water, just add till the sauce is thicken)

Notes:
a) You can also used dried woodear if you prefer.
b) Cornstarch mixture = 1/2 Tablespoon Potato/Cornstarch mix with 2 Tablespoons Of water.

Bread Fritter Stuffed With Banana & Chocolate

Saw this interesting recipe from one of the Food Magazine which I bought recently. It actually wrapped banana with chocolate with bread then deep-frying it.


To my surprised it doesn't really taste as sweet as I thought maybe because I used dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. My son and I love the combination of banana with chocolate it's really another new way to serve bread as breakfast or afternoon tea snack.

Ingredients:
4 Slices Of White Bread
1 or 2 Banana
40g Chocolate Of Your Choice
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence, optional
Cornstarch for Dusting
Oil For Deep-frying

Methods:
1. Trim away sides of each sliced bread and flatten slightly with a rolling pin.
2. Peel and halve banana lengthwise to suit the size of the bread slice.
3. Roughly chop chocolate into fine pieces and set aside.
4. In a bowl, mix eggs with vanilla essence.
5. Dip each bread into egg mixture, ad place a slice of banana on one end then sprinkle some chopped chocolate on the banana.
6. Roll up the bread into a tight roll.
7. Dust with cornstarch and deep-fry till golden.
8. Drain on paper towel and cut it into half before serving.

Notes:
a) You can used any choice of bread that you prefer.
b) I used Dark Chocolate with almond.
c) You can serve the bread fritter with cut fruit or dust with some icing sugar.

Ginseng Black Chicken Soup

Feel like having some nutrition soup for this week as so happen Tracy was visiting me so I thought maybe can double boiled this soup and spilt half with her. Since only the adult prefer the Ginseng taste rather than the kid, I guess it's a good way to share in order to finish the soup :)


The Main ingredients used are small Ginseng Root and Black Chicken together with some other herbs to improve and strengthen the lungs and blood circulation. If you want to know more on what's the function and usage of each herbs, you can refer to the Basic Chinese Herbs I and Basic Chinese Herbs II links.

Ingredients:
1 Small Black Chicken,黑鸡
3-4 Gingseng Roots, 小人参
4 Slices Of Dang Gui, 当归片
4 Slices Of Huai Shan, 淮山片
1 Slices Of BeiQi, 北耆
1-2 Piece of Dang Shen(当参), cut into smaller pieces
6 Red Dates, 红枣
1 Tablespoon Gou Qizi, 枸杞子
10-12 Dried Lotus Seeds, 莲子
5g Dried Longan, 龙眼干

Methods:
1. Wash, trim and remove the skin and fats from the chicken. Cut the chicken into 3 - 4 large sections and blanch in boiling water then rinse and set aside.
2. Rinse all the dried herbs and set aside.
3. Soak the dried lotus seeds in hot water for a few minutes or till soft then remove all the pits in in to prevent it from bitter.
4. Bring a pot of 1.2 Litres of Water to boil then add in all the ingredients and bring to boil again.
5. Transfer all to a slow cooker and simmer on Auto for about 3 Hours.
6. Season the soup with salt if you prefer and serve warm.

Notes:
a) You can used normal free range chicken instead of black chicken if you prefer.

Chocolate Mint Cake With Fudge Topping

The 1st time I saw this Chocolate Mint Cake was in Taste Goblet blogsite. I was capture by the wonderful jade green colour and chocolate swirl design. The original recipe was from Aunty Yochana's blogsite where you can find the recipe.


I made this cake in smaller muffin size version instead of the 8" cake tin size used in the original recipe because I found it easier to do the fudge topping and it's kid's friendly to. I just need to give one serving portion to whoever that want to eat without cutting it into slices.... :) Lazy way of serving........

Reyon really enjoys every of our baking session. He loves to help me whip and beat up those necessary ingredients or help up in the stirring part when i pour in the Cocoa Powder or Milk. Guess very soon I can sit and relax while waiting for him to whip me some nice cookies or cake....... :)

I can't find any decent looking strawberries around in the supermarket so I melt some white chocolate to decorate the Chocolate Fudge Topping. As for the mini muffin, I sprinkle some colourful stars for my little Darling Reyon.

Sushi Chee Cheong Fun

This Sushi Chee Cheong Fun recipe had being sitting in my list to-make for a very long time. Then only till today I had the chance to grab hold the ingredients to make this light and health snack. But actually I also tried this snack in one of the Food Court vegetarian stall but the ingredients used was different from what mention below.


The main ingredients will be the Fresh Chee Cheong Fun which you can get hold from the supermarket or any bean sprout stall in the wet market. You can wrap it with any ingredients you prefer to suit your preference.

Ingredients:
2 Fresh Chee Cheong Fun Roll
2 Nori Sheet(use for sushi)
1 Japanese Cucumber, cut into long strips
1 Medium Carrot, shredded into long strips
2 Hard Boiled Egg, mashed into crumbs
4 - 5 Tablespoons Of Pork Floss
Some Mayonnaise Cream

Methods:
1) Slowly un-wrap the fresh chee cheong fun into a flat sheet.
2) Top it with a Nori Sheet then place the shredded carrot at the end towards you.
3) Add the cucumber strips, scatter the egg crumbs and pork floss evenly then drizzle with mayonnaise cream.(i use the Japanese style mayonnaise cream)
4) Slowly fold up the end that is towards you and hold on it firmly and roll it forward like making swiss roll.
5) Secure it tightly then cut it into serving size like sushi and serve with extra mayonnaise cream if prefer.

Note:
a) You can reheat the chee cheong fun by steaming it for a few minutes then un-wrap to use if you bought it a day before or you prefer to the sushi warm.
b) You can used any ingredients you prefer like: Shredded cooked chicken meat, tuna, prawn, crab meat or etc.