Weekend Baking-Blueberry and Chocolate chips Muffin!

Getting into X’mas mood, I sudden have the urge to bake. Those we know me, I’m not a cake person and I don’t bother or travel far to have a good cake treat. Anyway, it was a long weekend and thinking of pasting my time with good use, hehe..like real, I decided to bake! Not the over elaborated kind but I decided to bake something easy and non-brainer. Also, less cleaning and do not require much ingredients to hunt and is easily to buy or have in your kitchen.

After work, I drop by Cold Storage. Browsing thru the cake section, I came across Krusteaz-Wild Blueberry mix! Turning behind the box, the instruction is so easy and what’s more I only need an egg, vegetable oil (I substitute it with butter) and 5.3oz of water (I substitute it with orange juice). In addition to this, I bought some muffins cup and a muffin tray.

After dropping home, I was so excited to start baking but I stop myself till the next day so that I can have it with my afternoon tea!

Here’s the ABC step by step to your Wild Berry Cup Cakes…! The good thing about this Krusteaz muffin mix comes with a can of blueberry! See, I don’t even need to run around to look for blueberry. It’s all in a box and I only need to gather a little strength to open the lid, ok, I use a can opener. Run through the berry under cold water. Drain and put aside.

This is what I prepare an egg, butter (half of it), Krusteaz muffin mix, 5.3oz of orange juice (not in the pic) and Hershey’s mini button chocolate (my own creation to throw in some chocolate chips..yummy!)

Break the egg, fold in the muffin mix, pour in the juice and start blending the mix.

Blend it till you get a velvety texture. If you still don’t, you are not working your muscle! Start blending or if you are just a princess, my advice get a machine to help you.

Next, pour in the chocolate chips and the last to go are the berries! You do not want your berries become to mushy.

Line the baking tray with the muffin cups and pour in about 2/3 of the mix. For deco, I threw in some choco chips on top of the muffin mix. Push them in slightly inside as they will stay put on top of your muffin prettily, else it will stop dropping off like rat shit when you remove them out from the tray.

Ta-DA! Looks good eh?!

Of course, it tastes good and yummmmmy too! Don’t you think you can bake like a professional now with Krusteaz?

Yes, you can! Go and try it and they have other flavours too!

Brownrice's Wanton Mee

Having the last piece of supposedly meant for my char siew making, I decided to give the last shot for this piece of meat which the pork seller introduce me as a best part for char siew. Next time, I will definitely buy pork belly for char siew (pork seller keep insisting this is the best part! L). Anyway, I find it a tad too meaty and no fats as I wish my char siew to be.

I decided to make Wanton Mee (dried version) for Saturday lunch. I seasoned the char siew 2 days ago and took it out on Saturday morning for grilling. Went to the wet market to buy more ingredients like vege and egg noodles. The egg noodles for 4 large rolls only costs me $1.60. Very very reasonable!

Here’s my version of Wanton mee. The sauce is the main “S” factor that makes the whole meal kick. Most probably in future, I will use pork lards oil to make it more fragrant..hah…

With my own version of sauce:-

1. Dark soya sauce
2. Sesame/Garlic oil ( I will substitute this with pork lard oil in future)
3. Dash of pepper
4. Mirin

Mussel baked with cheese and garlic

This is quite an outdated post. One of the weekends, I decided to baked mussel with cheese and garlic for dinner. The mussel was for one of the BBQ we had in Mar09 but there were abundant of foods on the table, my mussel were left unopened.
With my own recipe and agak agak of ingredients to put in, here’s what I whip out from my kitchen:-

Making the sauce for 450g of mussels:
1) Chopped garlic (the more the better)
2) Salted butter (500g)
3) Basil leaves (1/2 tbsp)
4) Pepper (1/2 tpsn)
5) White wine/Chinese wine (1/2 tspn)
6) Grated mozzarella and cheddar cheese (to your likings)

Add chopped garlic, salted butter, basil leaves and pepper in a bowl till you get a smooth texture.
Line the mussel on a aluminum foil on top of the baking pan. Scoop the mixture onto the mussel and add in the grated mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Cover more generously than the one I had in the picture.
Baked it in the oven at 200 degree for 15 minutes. Watch the mussel to avoid any over burnt. Adjust the temperature according to your oven (some oven works differently).

Ta-Da! Here’s my Baked Cheese Mussel. Taste good and we finish all of them within 5 mins!

A1 Emperor Herbs Chicken

After listen to my colleague discuss on what's good and save time and enery (aunty talk), I decided to try this A1 Emperor Herbs Chicken.

I woke up around 8:45am this morning and off I go to do some marketing. Bought half chicken, thinking for the 2 of us finishing a full chicken for lunch is quite scary.

What's the rave about on this A1 is, you only need to buy raw chicken and the rest leave to A1 All in 1 Pack to do the job!. Best right?

So, here's what you need to do. Clean the chicken and put it aside.
This is how the A1 Emperor Herbs pack look like. It cost me SGD2.80 and SGD3.80 for half chicken.

That's what you have after opening the packet. This is what I mean by leave A1 to do the job. It even provide you aluminium foil and HDPE in this pack. A small piece of instruction on 3 ways how you can benefit on this pack and next is the wholesome goodness which is the Herbs and Spices!Rub the herbs and spices on the chicken throughly. Place the chicken on the HDPE and wrap it with the aluminium foil. If you like your chicken to have some gravy, add a little water on the aluminium foil. I add some wolfberry too.

The instruction says steam for 2 hours but I steam for 1 1/2 hour.

Here's the after product. Result, finger licking good and very yummy. We finish every single drop of the gravy. Will definitely cook again anytime soon! Try it and you will love it! Now, this A1 is a must have in my kitchen now :)

Char Siew

Last weekend, I hands on to roast char siew for lunch. The taste turns out well but the pork is not fatty enough! haHaa…char siew without the fats is not Char Siew to me! I shall try pork belly in future.

Anyway, here’s the recipe for making char siew……

1. Light soya sauce
2. Dark soya sauce
3. Oyster sauce
4. 5 spices
5. Chopped garlics
6. Rose wine
7. And sugar to suit your taste buds.

And of course, pork to your liking (pork belly or you may ask the pork seller for advice).

I seasoned the pork for 3 days in the fridge. I started on Wed night and brought it out to roast on Saturday morning. I kept the oven temperature around 200 degree and roast for 20mins. I brought out the pork after 10mins of roasting and basked with honey to substitute “bai leh koh-in Hokkien and went back to roast for another good 10 minutes.

If you like your char siew to be slightly burn, you may just need to roast a little longer to get the burn look.

Here’s my char siew and my Hubby heartily feed them all into his tummy :)

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Last week, I cook a rather a simple dish for Hubby for his birthday. I remember eating this when I was young where Mom will prepare this lovely and tantalizing dish for us. So, trying to recall on how to cook this lovely dish, here’s a version of Lam Mee from my own kitchen’s recipe.

Stock

1. 1 whole chicken carcass, pork ribs and scallop boil overnight. Reboil the soup again next day and add some salt to taste.

Ingredients

1. Breanspout fried with prawns and lotsa garlics. Fried the chopped garlics first before the prawns and beansprout.
2. 2 beaten egg and with a small “dot” of red colourings (edible colors). Fried the egg into an omellete. Sliced them into thinly slices.
3. Chicken meat shred them thinly. You can use drumstick and throw them in half an hour before the stock is ready.
4. “Yellow” mee.

Here’s a photo of my labour and I’m glad it turns out as good as I expected it to be :).

We clean the whole pot of soup and mee without leaving any leftover behind. What is missing here is SAMBAL BELACHAN. If this goes together with the belacan….oooo Heavenly!

It’s simple food, healthy and yummy. What’s more, I don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen preparing this dish.

Aglio Olio in making

After reading a few blogs and food columns, I decided to make my own Aglio Olio. If you are a person who don't fancy heavy sauce or cream, I would suggest Aglio Olio. It's full of flavour with hints of garlic and chilli flakes.

The ingredients are basically very simple. You can cook it with any seafood that you desire. To me, I keep it simple with prawns only. I wanted to have some crabstick but memory fails me when I was doing my grocery. So, it was missed out.

Here's the simple ingredients

• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Oregano
• Prawns
• Chilli flakes
• Angel hair spaghetti

Boil the Angel hair with some oil. I chose Angel Hair as I heard it absorbs better than other types.

Fried the chop garlic ( I bought mine ready made..:p. I will use a fresh one in future) with some chilli flakes till fragrant and garlic golden brown.

Then, toss in the prawns or seafood and fried the prawns till they are pink.

Toss in the angel hair and fried it for another 5mins. Some dash of oregano.

Here's my Algio Olio. Hmm, makes me hungry again.

Hearty Breakfast

I was in the mood to cook my own breakfast and also Zach decides to wake me up early and I can't go back to sleep after that. So, I thought of preparing an early breakfast while hubby is still sleeping.

The night before, I decided to make my very own burger using mince pork to make my own pattie. I seasoned it with some spices using my own creation. Little did I know that this turn out awesome! hehe...self praise abit here. Those who are interested in my recipe, don't mind sharing it with you. But it's easy to make, just a dash of everything you have in your cupboard hehehe....

Anyway, allow me to share with you my home made burger. This is how I like my burger to be....

Vicky's Chicken Rice

Remembering those days back in UK, my dear housemate taught us how to cook chicken rice as most of us craving for it. Lately, she recalled my memory again on those days and here's her recipe. I decided to name this chicken rice after her as this simple and healthy cooking taste fairly good!

Here's the simple step...

1. Prepare some sliced ginger, garlic (smashed), and chicken ( I prefer the drumstick)

2. Prepare a pot of water to make chicken stock. Cooked the ginger, garlic and chicken for 40 mins.

3. Prepare to cook rice. Use some of the boiled chicken stock, ginger and garlic for cooking the rice. Don't add in the chicken (which I did) as it will overcook the chicken. After boiling the chicken stock, dish out the chicken and rub them with some table salt. Not too much.

4. Add in some salt and butter (optional) into the pot of rice.
5. While waiting for the rice to cook, prepare the sauce for the chicken. Add few dashes of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon of soya sauce (adjust according to your taste), a dash of pepper and some chicken stock.

6. Voila! Vicky's chicken rice and don't forget to garnish with sliced cucumber. Use the rest of the chicken stock as soup. Add in some spring onion or chinese parsley. Sorry, chicken looks little as we had finish half of the portion. Almost forgot to take pictures!

Ingredients for chicken & stock
Chicken, cut

Sliced ginger

Galic, smashed

Cucumber, sliced

Rice
Chicken stock
Garlic-from chicken stock
Ginger-from chicken stock
Butter (optional)
Salt

Seasoning for chicken

Soya sauce

Sesame oil

Pepper

Table salt

Chicken stock

Soup

Table salt

Pepper

Chinese parsley/spring onion

Grilled Pork Ribs with Honey glazed

I luurrrrrrvv pork ribs.. Pork ribs in Bah Kut Teh, grilled honey pork ribs, steam pork ribs in black bean sauce....yummy! I decided to grill my own pork ribs after much left over from last weekend cooking.

Here's my very simple recipe which I use to season my pork ribs. Infact, my kitchen is still very minimal and bare so I decided to create my own recipe and it turns out more than what I expected!

Ingredients

6 pieces of pork ribs chopped

Garlic chopped

Seasoning

1/2 tablespoon of soya sauce

1 tablespoon of black soya sauce

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

3 packets of chilli sauce ( I use those in packet where you can get free from McD...hehe)
2 packets of tomatoe sauce (same concept as chilli sauce =p)
Few dashes of black pepper

Method

Seasoned the porks ribs with all the above seasoning and garlic. Leave in the fridge for at least half an hour or more. The longer you leave, the better your rib taste. If you have a ziplock bag, keep the pork ribs inside the bag. Understand that it will enhance the smell and taste.

Heat oven to 250 degree and coat some margarine on the pork ribs. Turn occasionally the pork ribs and look out for sign of over cook (in hokkien = chao ta). Towards the last leg of grilling, glazed pork ribs with honey. Dont do it too early as honey will tends to burn your ribs.

Here's the result of my grilled pork ribs with honey and it taste as good as the picture... =) infact, it taste like char siew. Is this how char siew being roasted? hmm....i shall try again in future but using the collar neck meat. Known to be better for roasting char siew.

Fried Beehoon Pork Chops

Hmm... am getting mental block on what to cook everyday. Further, am getting lazier each days to whip up something different and special so today decided to fry bee hoon with stewed pork ribs.

My FIL gave this to me and was told that it will taste good especially fried with beehoon. Something I never thought or try of!

Sounds simple and something different for dinner today. Below are the ingredients I prepared...

Ingredients

1. Shallot chopped in small bits

2. Garlic chopped

3. Carrot sliced

4. 3 beaten eggs

5. Soya sauce

6. Oyster sauce

7. 1 can of stewed pork chops

8. Lettuce - sliced

Method

1. Soak beehoon in cold water for at least half an hour till soft

2. Fried the beaten eggs in omellete style - for garnishing

3. Fried shallot till fragrant and add in carrot and garlic. Continue frying til fragrant.

4. Add in oyster sauce, soya sauce and beehoon. Stir well

5. Add in stewed pork chops together with the gravy and fried till beehoon half dry

6. Dish out and garnish with lettuce and sliced omellete

Fried Pork Chop Bee Hoon

Lovely....Taste yummy and hubbee love it! :)

Foodie Corner

I always love the roast duck in Singapore comparing to Msia. I find here more tastier and yummier. Somehow, the roasting of the duck is very different. My sis in law gave me a half duck yesterday and I decided to cook "lor ak" for dinner tonight.

It smells good and yummy :) ( not too bad for 1st timer) and picture speaks louder than words...




Recipe for Lor Ak (in Hokkien)

Ingredients
1. Roast Duck (half duck)

2. 2 teaspoon cooking oil
3. Hard boil eggs (qty depending on you)
4. 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
5. 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
6. 1 tablespoon black sauce
7. 1/2 tablespoon soya sauce
8. 1 teaspoon corn starch (optional)

Method:

Heat up wok with the cooking oil. Fried garlic till fragrant and add in roast duck and continue frying for at least 5 mins and add in Item 5-7. Add in egg and 1/2 cup water to make the gravy and let it simmer for 10-15 mins. If you like the gravy to be thick, add in the corn starch. Lastly, some dashes of white pepper and dish out.

Hubbee's Verdict:

:) Good for first timer