Category Archives: Recipes

Deep Fried Wontons

Malaysian, Recipes 05/01/2013 1 Comment

Who doesn’t love crunchy deep fried wontons? They are great as party food, snacks or as accompaniment to rice. In Malaysia deep fried wontons are also served with egg noodles, char siu (barbequed pork) and choy sum (asian green) dressed with dark and light soy sauce (a.k.a dry wonton noodle). With ready-made wonton wrappers easily available in the supermarket, making wonton is a breeze. Wonton filling mainly consists of mince pork, prawn, water chestnuts, spring onions, and seasonings. Cornflour and egg white are used to bind the ingredients together. To obtain a good wonton filling texture, do not add in too much mince meat and do not compact the meat like you do in making meatballs. You do not want a filling that’s too dense in this case. I like to put in a lot of roughly chopped water chestnuts and prawns to give the filling a crunchier texture. There are various wonton wrapping methods or techniques available on the internet depending on the wonton shapes. The wonton shape that I usually make resembles a hobo’s bindle which is simple, quick to make, and suitable for beginners.

Wonton filling ingredientsIngredients for wonton filling.

FillingMix well using a fork.

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Stir Fry Spiral Pasta with Bacon & Mushrooms

Fusion, Recipes 03/01/2013 Leave a comment

One time, Mr. D’s mom cooked this for dinner and I instantly liked it. It is something different from your usual pasta dish and taste awesome. Furthermore, it is super simple to cook and extremely versatile. You can use/add whatever ingredients you fancy (prawn, squid, chicken or beef) to the pasta. The combination of worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, and chilli sauce creates a tangy sweet and sour taste with a subtle hint of spiciness that will appeal to those who loves sweet and sourish food. It is important to ensure that the pasta is not overcook in step 1, or else it’ll end up unpalatable as the pasta will cook further in the wok and it’ll be sticky and gluggy. Hence, it is advisable to cook the pasta 1-2 min less than the stated time on the packet.

IMG_6627I used smoked bacon but you can use whatever ingredients (meat/cured meat/seafood) you have in your fridge.

IMG_6633Enjoy!

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Mango Sorbet

Cakes, Bakes & Desserts, Recipes 01/01/2013 Leave a comment

Our first homemade ice-cream attempt was lip-smacking good and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole ice-cream making process. This time, I decided to make my own mango sorbet since it’s summer here and it’s in season. I used Kensington Pride mangoes as they have stronger mango aroma and they are sweeter too. Sorbet is much simpler to make compared to ice-cream. It basically consist of 2 main ingredients, the fruit puree and sugar syrup. Citrus (orange/lemon juice) is added to bring out the mango flavor. I also added a little quantity of glucose to the sorbet mixture. I read that this helps to create a smooth texture sorbet rather than icy texture after being frozen for a few days. The trick worked as my sorbet was really smooth and creamy. However, Mr. D disagreed, saying that sorbet should be icy rather than smooth. Nevertheless, he still ate quite a lot of it. Haha…

IMG_6968The ingredients.

IMG_6984Puree the diced mangoes with the orange juice.

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Japanese Curry Rice

Japanese, Recipes 29/12/2012 Comments: 2

Japanese curry rice or karē raisu is Mr. D’s favorite and whenever I cook this dish, he’ll jump for joy like a little boy in a candy store. Japanese curry is very popular in Japan and you can easily get it in any fast food shop or cafe. Unlike Indian or Malaysian curry which are on the spicy side, Japanese curry is not spicy, has thicker consistency, extremely aromatic and slightly sweeter. It is a very appetizing dish and Mr. D couldn’t have enough of it. This dish is simple and quick to prepare as you can use store bought Japanese curry roux in block form. There are an assortment of instant curry roux which are easily available in any Asian groceries store. The major brands are from House Foods, S&B Foods & Ezaki Glico.

In our quest to search for the best instant Japanese curry roux, we tested the different range we could get hold of such as the S&B Golden Curry, S&B Tasty Curry, House Vermont Curry, House Java Curry, and House Kokumaro Curry. Our verdict: Kokumaro Curry from House is without a doubt the best curry among all the instant Japanese curry we tried as it’s seductively aromatic and tantalizing. It tastes as good or even better than the ones serve in the Japanese restaurant here. It comes in a box with 2 blocks of curry roux and each block yields about 5 servings.

IMG_6945Finely diced shallots, bite-sized chicken, diced carrots and potatoes, and Kokumaro instant curry roux are all you need.

IMG_6948Itadakimasu! Honto ni oishii desu!

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Indonesian Layer Cake

Cakes, Bakes & Desserts, Recipes 23/12/2012 1 Comment

Indonesian layer cake has been a favorite of mine since I was young. My aunt who used to own a cake shop would give my mom a square of this layer cake every Chinese New Year and it would be gone in no time (thanks to me :P). This cake has a lot of eggs and butter in it and therefore it’s very rich and moist. I never thought of baking this cake until my bestie, Mei asked me if I could make it as she loves it too. She did warn me that the process is extremely tedious and truthfully, IT IS. My advise is, do not attempt this if you do not have a whole afternoon to yourself. The cake needs to be grilled layer by layer and it’ll take at least 2 hours to complete. No doubt it is very time consuming but extremely rewarding in the end. 😀 This cake not only tastes delicious, it looks impressive as well. Hence, Mr. D and I decided to bake this cake to give it to our dearest neighbor and friends as a Christmas gift.

There are many different recipes available on the internet, each using different quantities of egg yolks and egg whites. Some of the layer cake recipes have condensed milk in them. After going through all of the recipes that I’ve gathered, I finally decided on Poh’s version as hers has the least number of egg yolks. Furthermore, I’m a fan of her cooking. I love watching her cooked in MasterChef Australia Season 1 and after that, she has her own cook show which shares a lot of great recipes. Her Indonesian layer cake recipe calls for five spice powder but I was not too comfortable using it in cake as five spice powder is normally used in savory dishes especially to season meat. Hence, I replaced it with all spice powder.

Our first attempt failed as we over beat the egg whites and under beat the butter causing the layers to delaminate due to incorrect batter consistency. We tried baking it again this afternoon making sure that we followed every step carefully. And, we were glad that it worked out well this time. We were extremely pleased and proud of the end result. The cake is just stunningly good, both flavor and appearance!

IngredientsThis cake consists of 9 simple ingredients.

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Quick Chicken Curry Puff

Malaysian, Recipes 23/12/2012 Leave a comment

Last week has been hectic and exhausting. I had very little motivation to cook yet both of us did not feel like eating out. So, I whipped up a simple chicken curry puff for dinner using instant Malaysian curry paste from A1 Best One. A1 Best One instant curry paste is very famous in Malaysia and it is sold in most overseas asian groceries stores . The reasons behind its popularity are its wonderful aroma and flavorful taste. Please take note that there is another instant curry paste sold in the stores that has almost similar name as A1 Best One and it is known as A1 ActionOne instant curry paste. Initially, I thought that they are both from the same company but later found out that they were different. I prefer A1 Best One’s curry paste over A1 ActionOne as the latter taste a bit dull.

IMG_6521Ingredients you need.

Quick Chicken Curry Puff (Serves 5)

Puff Filling

Ingredients

  • 1 packet of instant curry paste
  • 1 medium red onion (chopped)
  • 2 potatoes (peeled and cubed)
  • 4 chicken thigh fillets
  • 300 ml water
  • 1 tbs oil

Methods

  1. Wash the chicken thigh fillets and pat them dry with a paper towel. Cut the fillets into cubes.
  2. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add in the chopped onions and fry until translucent.
  3. Add in the instant curry paste and stir-fry for 2 min or until aromatic.
  4. Add in the cubed chicken thigh fillets and potatoes and stir fry for 3 min.
  5. Pour in 300 ml of water. Cover the lid, lower the heat and let the curry simmer until the chicken is done and potatoes are tender (30-45 min).
  6. Let it cool.

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Mac & Cheese

Recipes, Western 05/12/2012 Leave a comment

For me, it’s important to obtain good quality cheese and pasta when cooking Mac & Cheese because these two are the heroes of the dish. I enjoy Barilla’s pasta more than San Remo’s as Barilla’s pasta has nice bitey texture and shorter cooking time. As for the cheese, I used Bega’s vintage cheddar and Mainland’s Gruyere. This recipe by Neil Perry calls for the addition of smoked paprika and Dijon mustard into the cream mixture. The flavor is rather interesting and all of them goes hand in hand together. I usually give it a generous sprinkle of breadcrumbs over the top and slowly grill it for better crunch and fragrance. I can assure you that you’ll be sticking to this recipe after you try it as it’s so easy, quick, and most importantly, DELICIOUS. I was pleasantly surprised at how light this dish is despite the amount of cream and cheese used in this recipe. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

IMG_6418These are what you need. Missing breadcrumbs as I forgot to take it out from the cabinet.

IMG_6449Yum yum…

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Super Creamy Dark Chocolate Ice-Cream With Roasted Slivered Almonds

Cakes, Bakes & Desserts, Recipes 04/12/2012 1 Comment

I have been dying to try my ice-cream bowl which I got it free when I purchased the Breville stand mixer. Before that, I need to decide on the type; ice-cream, gelato, sorbet or granita. According to Breville’s booklet,  ice-cream has the highest percentage of  fat among them. It consists of a combination of milk, cream, sugar and eggs. There are also ice-cream recipes that do not require any eggs. Gelato is a milk based ice that is lower in fat compared to French and American-style ice-cream and are usually flavored with fresh fruits, syrups or coffee. Sorbet is a frozen dessert typically flavored with fruit while granita is an ice-based dessert. It took me forever to decide on both the type and flavor because being an ice-cream freak, I love almost every flavor that are out there. After a long long thought, I finally settled on dark chocolate ice-cream, a classic flavor.

I was busy with my work yesterday and I have to use up my opened bottle of cream ASAP. Mr. D kindly offered to help me to prepare the ice-cream mixture. Making your own ice-cream is not difficult at all especially when you have an ice-cream maker. It’s superbly fun and rewarding (in terms of taste). I am extremely delighted with the end result. Our homemade ice-cream is super creamy and I love the crunchy bits of roasted almonds in the ice-cream. The dark chocolate flavor is so intense that it feels like chocolate fireworks explosions in your mouth. This easily beats any ice-cream sold in the supermarkets.

IMG_6342Chopped dark chocolate

IMG_6368Roasted almonds

17Such great fun churning your own ice-cream!

IMG_6454Tadaa…Yippie!  ＼（＾ ＾）／

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Claypot-less Chicken Rice

Malaysian, Recipes 03/12/2012 Leave a comment

Are you a fan of claypot chicken rice? I know I AM! For those of you who have no idea what it is, allow me to enlighten you. 🙂 Basically, it is a combination of marinated chicken pieces, shitake mushrooms, and rice cooked in a claypot over high flames and right before it is served, an egg is cracked over the rice and sprinkled with salted fish. I’m feeling hungry already by just describing it. Haha, greedy me! 😛

Claypot chicken rice is easily obtainable anywhere in Penang, Malaysia. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Australia especially in Geelong. But that won’t stop me from enjoying my favorite food. If I crave it, cook it I shall!

Cooking the dish in a claypot will produce a layer of crispy bits at the bottom of the pan and this gives the dish a great charred flavor. This charred flavor together with the egg and fragrant salted fish are just amazing! (Mmm!~~ ) Sadly, I do not have a claypot so I’ll just have to make do with what I’ve got, a microwavable pot or a rice cooker. Although cooking it this way does not give you the amazing crispy charred bits, it still taste delicious especially when serving with good quality salted fish. This dish is a great one pot dish for those lazy days as it is very simple to cook. It is important to get the right balance of saltiness in this dish. After some trial and error, this is the final recipe that I’m happy with.

15Salted fish brought in from Penang by Mr. D’s mom. Salted fish sold in asian groceries stores in Melbourne is super expensive and not as fresh looking as the ones back home. 

IMG_6315Soaked shitake musrooms. Do not throw away the soaking liquid as it is used to enhance the rice flavor.

IMG_6335Golden brown salted fish.

IMG_6334Make sure to stir fry the rice and all of the ingredients evenly in the wok before transferring to the rice cooker or microwavable pot.

IMG_6339Itadakimasu! 🙂

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Creamy Mushroom Soup & Pan-Fried Chicken

Recipes, Western 02/12/2012 Leave a comment

Last week, Coles had specials on mushrooms. The timing was perfect as I had plan to cook my own creamy mushroom soup. However, I didn’t have the chance to cook it until tonight as it was pretty hot for the past whole week. There’s no air-conditioner in our house and we only have a tower fan to keep ourselves cool. Drinking hot soup on a hot day in our hot house is definitely a big NO NO. Tonight is good as the temperature is slowly going down.

Actually, I tried making my own mushroom soup once, last year, but didn’t like the consistency of the soup because I didn’t blend them at the end. I did not have a stick blender or a food processor at that time. We bought a stick blender at the beginning of this year so time to re-visit my creamy mushroom soup. This time, I added dried porcini mushrooms to give the soup a stronger earthy flavor and it really worked wonders. The aroma was absolutely fantastic. Dried porcini mushrooms are not cheap though, $5.89 for 20g but you only need a small amount for the soup. Having soup alone could not satisfy our large capacity tummies so I did a quick pan-fried chicken to go with the soup.

IMG_6305Wonderful stuff.

IMG_6306I need to improve on my food presentation skills.

IMG_6308Pan fried chicken inspired by Jamie Oliver.

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