Beetroot Salad

Bonjour,

I am not a biggest fan of salad but sometimes I do enjoy a good bowl of mixed salad like beetroot, mango or cucumber salad. Most people knows how to make a salad, just like me, I mix it up everything in a bowl without any specific measurement because everyone has a different tastes and different ways of doing things. Feel free to experiments by adding any beans or vegetables and make our own beetroot salad at home.

This is my beetroot salad version, sometimes I add boiled potato and tuna in it but at the end everything is depend on the individual's preference and tastes. It's simple and it's a great way to use up leftover vegetables in the fridge.

BEETROOT SALAD

Ingredients;

Beetroot
Green salad
Carrot
Corn
Shallot
Salt and pepper

For the sauce;
Ketchup
Mayonnaise
Salt and pepper

METHOD;

- Mix up all the ingredients in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- In a small bowl, mix together all the sauce ingredient and toss salad with ketchup mayonnaise sauce.

Enjoy the beetroot salad!

Stir-Fried Broccoli With Prawns

Salut,

I love vegetables and whatever leftover veggies I have in my fridge, I would used up to make a quick stir fry vegetables with or without prawns. This stir fry broccoli with prawn is a great and easy simple meal for weeknight cooking, just a few minutes preparation, few minutes cooking time and voila, a tasty broccoli with prawns are ready for dinner!

Broccoli might not be a favourite vegetables for some and different for others, but broccoli can taste so different when prepared in a different way. Why don't give it a try and cook this broccoli with prawns.

STIR-FRIED BROCCOLI WITH PRAWNS

Ingredients;

1 broccoli, cut into small florets
200g prawns
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1cm ginger, chopped
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon corn flour, mix with little bit of water
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Boil the broccoli in a boiling water until the broccoli are tender.
- Heat little oil in a wok or frying pan and fry garlic and ginger until fragrant and brown colour.
- Add the prawns and broccoli and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Add little bit of water if needed.
- Taste and season with oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt and pepper.
- Stir in corn flour mixture, give a quick stir until sauce has thickened.
- Drizzle with sesame oil, remove and serve immediately.

Bon appétit!

Fried Tofu With Sesame Soy Sauce

Hello,

One of our dinner meal last few days is a fried tofu with sesame soy sauce, just fried tofu with salad and that's it. Making a fried tofu at home is a great idea because this simple dish was easy to prepare and at the same time this tofu tastes so good. I would make this dish again to serve as appetizer whenever we have dinner with friends in the future.

Fried tofu with sesame soy sauce was an exceptional dish indeed! This simple recipe was found on the pinterest while I searching some idea for our dinner meal.

FRIED TOFU WITH SESAME SOY SAUCE

Ingredients;

1 block firm tofu
2 tablespoon corn flour
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2cm ginger, chopped
3 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon chili flakes/ chili powder
1 tablespoon sesame seed
1 spring onion, chopped

METHOD;

- Cut tofu into bite-sized cubes and press tofu with paper towel to drain off the excess water.
- Toss the tofu cubes with corn flour, salt and pepper.
- Heat some oil in a wok or frying pan and fry coated tofu until golden brown. Drain in paper towel.
- In a small sauce pan, mix garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, honey and chili flakes.
- Heat the sauce and simmer for few second and transfer the hot sauce in a large bowl. Leaving some sauce for dipping.
- Add the fried tofu, sesame seed and spring onion and toss to coat with the sauce.
- Served with green salad and extra dipping sauce.

- Bon appétit!

Prawn Curry

Hello,

A simple prawn curry for dinner can bring a complete joy with a great satisfaction. This prawn curry can serve with rice or naan bread and it was the gravy that make this curry so delicious. With this curry recipe, we can use any kind of meat like chicken or beef and some seafood will work very well and I'm sure they would turn out great and delicious!

For those who like spicy food, then just need to add more chilli powder or fresh chilies but be careful not to add too much otherwise it could be too spicy. This prawn curry so flavourful and a great dish to reheat for leftovers, a must try and do not eat naan bread without trying them.

PRAWN CURRY

Ingredients;

200g prawns
1 potato, cut into 4 cubes
1 onion
1 clove garlic
2cm ginger
2 tamarind peel
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 cup coconut milk
Salt and sugar to taste

METHOD;

- Blend together onion, garlic and ginger into fine paste.
- Mix curry and chilli powder with little bit of water to make a paste.
- Heat some oil in a saucepan and fry onion paste until fragrant.
- Add tamarind peel and curry paste and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add potatoes and a cup of water and let it simmer for a few minutes until the potatoes are slightly tender. Stirring occasionally.
- Add prawns and coconut milk , taste and adjust seasoning and continue to simmer until the prawns are cooked through.

Happy cooking!

Yellow Glutinous Rice

Hello,

Yellow glutinous rice or what we called "pulut kuning" or "nasi kunyit" in malay is one of the dish that I have not eaten in a very long time. I remembered when I was young, this dishes were served in the wedding as some of the families maintain their common traditions especially in the Malay wedding but as of now, only some people continue and keeping the tradition and served this pulut kuning in the wedding or any other special event. Some of the thing were going different and we have to accept that times and society were changing too.

Last weekend, I made pulut kuning with sambal anchovies for our lunch and it brought back my childhood memories eaten these dishes in the special event in my hometown. The sambal anchovies recipe that I used here is the same recipe for my coconut rice sambal and I just add fried anchovies in it.

YELLOW GLUTINOUS RICE

Ingredients;

1 1/2 cup glutinous rice
1/2 tablespoon turmeric powder
2 tamarind peel/ asam gelugor
250ml coconut milk
1 tablespoon oil, optional
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

METHOD;

- Soaked rice in turmeric water and tamarind peel for 8 hour or overnight.
- Prepare the steamer and round baking pan.
- Wash and drain the rice and transfer to the round pan.
- Mix coconut milk, oil, sugar and salt and pour to the rice pan.
- Steam the rice for 25-30 minutes and stirring occasionally with chopstick just to make sure all the grains are cooked.
- Serve the yellow glutinous rice with any preference dish like chicken or beef.

Bon appétit!

Red Velvet Cake

Bonjour,

December is here, a Christmas month! My goodness how time flies so fast these day and we are few weeks away to embrace another holiday and celebrate the festive season. Winter is coming and snow starts to fall in certain regions and at the same time Christmas tree and light are everywhere in the city.

Alors, since this month is a cakes and cookies season, I begins with a red velvet cake that I made few days ago. Nowadays, I bake and made a cake or cookies quite often because we received a friend who come over to visit sometime in the afternoon and I like to have dessert on hand to serve to our impromptu guests. I like to try new recipe as well which is I found from the internet or pinterest and sometime I just need to get some idea for what I want to make or bake and basically with the ingredients that I already have in my pantry.

RED VELVET CAKE

Ingredients;

240g flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
300g sugar
250ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
250ml buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A few drop of red food colouring
2 tablespoon hot or warm coffee
1 teaspoon vinegar

Cream and mascarpone cheese frosting;
250g mascarpone
200ml heavy cream
100g powdered sugar

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 170° and prepare baking pan.
- I replaced buttermilk with 250ml milk plus 1 tablespoon white vinegar and let stand for 10 minutes before using.
- In a medium bowl, sieve together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
- In another large bowl, whisk sugar and oil.
- Add in eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and red food colouring.
- Stir in the coffee and white vinegar, mix well.
- Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture little by little and whisk just until everything combine.
- Pour batter into prepared baking pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. Let it cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, combine mascarpone, heavy cream and sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Chill the frosting in the fridge for a few hour before ready to use.

Happy baking!

Potato Curry

Hello,

Indian style potato curry or aloo curry is another Indian dish that I made recently. Simple and easy, and suitable to be eaten with roti paratha or naan. This potato curry can be made in less than 30 minutes. With sauce or without sauce, adding green peas or carrot, either way this dishes are delicious.

Let's have a potato curry for dinner and enjoy the Indian dishes!

POTATO CURRY

Ingredients;

2-3 potatoes, cut into small cubes
1 onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon masala powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Heat up some oil in a saucepan and fry onion until fragrant and soft.
- Add chopped tomatoes, masala, coriander, chilli and turmeric powder and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add in potatoes and a cup of water, continue to cook for 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
- Season with salt and pepper, add more water if needed and cook until it reaches desire consistency.

Bon appetit!

Tiramisu

Buongiorno,

E tempo di mangiare tiramisù, è delizioso! Woof, what a language! I love to hear people talk in Italian and I would like to learn this language one day. Italian language is so beautiful with its dulcet tones and smooth flowing and even hand do the talking. Che magnifico!

Okay, now back to the food, I've made Italian popular dessert, tiramisu few days ago since I was thinking of making this dessert all week long and here I am, eggless tiramisu cake with amaretto. E fantastico e lo adoro!

TIRAMISU

35-40 ladyfingers
500g mascarpone
200ml heavy cream
200g sugar
11/2 cup brewed coffee
4 tablespoon amaretto
Cocoa powder for dusting

METHOD;

- Prepare the brewed coffee and add 2 tablespoon amaretto, allow to cool.
- In a large bowl, mix heavy cream and sugar, whisk until it forms soft peaks.
- In another large bowl, whisk mascarpone just to soften a bit.
- Fold whipping cream into mascarpone and add another 2 tablespoons amarettto, mix well.
- Dip ladyfingers quickly into the coffee and arrange in a bottom of baking pan or glass.
- Spread half of the mascarpone on top and layer with another ladyfingers .
- Spread remaining mascarpone and dust with cocoa powder.
- Refrigerate at least 8 hour or overnight and dust with another cocoa powder before serving.

Buon appetito!

Indonesian Sambal

Selamat sore or good evening!

When I was working in the hotel industry long time ago, I had many friends from different country working at the same department with me. I had one Indonesian friend who taught me how to make Indonesian style sambal. Sambal is a spicy chilli paste made with assorted chilli, shallot, garlic, prawn paste and salt and sugar. Sambal is popular in Indonesia and Malaysia. We eat sambal with the main meal as a side dishes and some people could eat sambal all the time and without sambal on the side, the meal seems not complete.

There are many types of sambals with slightly different ingredients but this is my most favourite sambal recipe and also favourite to my family and I made it every time we had a family gathering.

INDONESIAN SAMBAL

Ingredients;

2 tomatoes, cut into small pieces
4 big red chilli, sliced
4-5 small chilli, sliced
3-4 shallots, sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/2 teaspoon prawn paste
Salt and sugar to taste
Oil

METHOD;

- Heat up about 1/4 cup oil in a medium saucepan.
- Add all ingredients except salt and sugar, cook for 5-10 minutes or until the chilies and tomatoes are soften.
- Remove from heat, season with salt and sugar.
- Blend or pound everything into fine or coarse paste, I prefer my sambal a bit coarse and wetter.
- This sambal goes well with rice and any fried food!

Bon appétit!

Banana Blondies

Bonjour,

One simple and easy recipe that I want to make again in the future is banana blondies. I made this cake few days ago to finish up my ripe banana and at the same time to serve to our friend coming over to spend an afternoon tea at home. I found this recipe on pinterest while I'm searching for another simple banana recipe. One sliced of this blondies was simply not enough and it was a great recipe indeed.

There are so many blondies recipe out there but either way, even without banana, they were delicious!

BANANA BLONDIES

Ingredients;

120g salted butter, melted and browned if desired
100g brown sugar
1 egg
150g flour
2 mashed banana

Brown sugar frosting;
60g butter
50g brown sugar
2 tablespoon milk
150g powder sugar

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 180° and prepare baking pan.
- In a medium bowl, combine melted browned butter and sugar and whisk until combined.
- Beat in egg and mix well.
- Stir in flour and mash banana until smooth and well blended.
- Pour batter in a prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

For the brown sugar frosting;
- Melt butter in a medium saucepan and add sugar and milk. Stir until the mixture just come to boil.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Add in powdered sugar and whisk until the frosting is smooth.
- Spread over the blondies and allow frosting to cool completely before serve.

Happy baking!

Spicy Fruit Salad

Hello,

Spicy fruit salad or we called it "rojak" one of the popular salad in certain country like Singapore and Indonesia. Rojak means everything is mixed up in one bowl with assorted fruits and vegetable like pineapple, cucumber, mango, apple, beansprouts and served with special homemade rojak sauce. My mom loves these spicy fruit salad and I used to make in a big portion for her, so she can keep in the fridge and eat whenever she wants.

This rojak taste quite unique and special, some people might not like it but for those who like to discover Asian food, these spicy fruit salad is a must try!

SPICY FRUIT SALAD

Ingredients:-

4 tablespoon dark soy sauce
4 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
1 teaspoon chilli paste or chilli powder
2 tablespoon palm sugar/ brown sugar
2 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon prawn paste, optional
Sugar to taste
Sesame seed
Crushed peanut
Assorted fruits and vegetable (pineapple, mango, cucumber, beansprouts, fried tofu etc..)

METHOD:-

- To make the sauce, mix all ingredients in a saucepan except cornflour paste, peanuts, sesame seeds and fruits.
- Bring to boil over low heat and stirring constantly until the sauce thickens slightly. Add more sugar if needed.
- Remove from the heat and add in sesame seeds, allow to cool.
- Cut all the fruits into bite-size and mix all together.
- Pour the sauce over the fruit and toss gently to mix well.
- Sprinkle with crushed peanut and serve.

Bon appétit!

Pain Perdu

Bonjour,

It's been quite long time since I made French toast or pain perdu and I've made it for our breakfast this morning. Every time I watch a French cooking shows, it just make me want to cook right away and sometimes French cooking are simple and all the ingredients are cheap. Just like these pain perdu, it was so easy to make, the French desserts are always tempting, so good and it's always hard to resist.

PAIN PERDU

Ingredients;

4 sliced bread or brioche
1 egg
100ml milk
100ml heavy cream/ cream liquid
1 tablespoon sugar
1 vanilla pod/ vanilla sugar or vanilla essence
Butter for greasing

METHOD;

- Beat egg, sugar and vanilla in shallow dish and stir in milk and cream.
- Deep bread in the egg mixture for a few second and turning to coat both sides.
- Heat the nonstick pan and lightly greased with butter.
- Cook bread sliced until browned on both sides.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with butter.

Bon appétit!

Tomato Rice

Bonjour,

Just like potato, rice is one of the most important staple food in Asia and certain country in the world. Cooking rice is not complicated and there are so many rice recipes that we could easily find in the internet. From plain rice, fried rice and butter to tomato rice, all these rice are so easy to cook. If there are something to impress our dinner guests, these butter rice and tomato rice are perfect and I've made it quite often. Easy yet delicious!

TOMATO RICE

Ingredients;

2 cups rice, rinse before cooking
2 shallots, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1cm ginger, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 cardamom
2 cups water
1/4 cup evaporated milk
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoon ketchup
2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon oil
Salt to taste

METHOD;

- Heat up butter and oil in the rice cooker pot or saucepan and fry shallot, garlic and ginger and the other 3 spiced until fragrant.
- Add water, evaporated milk, tomato, ketchup and salt. Bring to boil.
- Add rice, stir and transfer the pot to the rice cooker, press and let the rice cook itself.
- Cook the rice over low heat if using saucepan and cover with a lid when water is almost dry. Cook until the rice are fully cooked, switch off the heat and wait for 10-15 before serving.

Bon appétit!

Muesli Cookies

Hello,

Whenever I'm searching for the cookies recipe in the internet, I tried to find the eggless recipe where the cookies made with the simple ingredients that I usually have it at home. Muesli cookies are one of the simple and easy cookies that I made today and these cookies are perfect for an afternoon tea. Sometimes making cookies can never go wrong by just adding some other ingredients like maple syrup, chocolate chips or milk. Everything is depends on individual taste and preferences.

The last time I made these muesli cookies during Halloween and we gave out these cookies for the parents who supervise their kids on candy collecting mission. We are so happy that night where everything was finish, candies and cookies..

MUESLI COOKIES

Ingredients;

1 cup muesli
1 cup flour
1/2 cup raisin or chocolate chips, optional
70g salted butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar

METHOD;

- Preheat oven 170° and prepare baking dish.
- Mix together melted butter and sugar in a mixing bowl.
- Add muesli, flour and raisin and mix to form a crumbly dough.
- Take a small portion and press to form a ball and flatten it a bit.
- Arrange on the prepared baking dish with 2cm apart and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies are evenly brown.

Happy baking!

Lao-Style Spicy Cucumber Salad

Sabaidee,

I remember eating salads quite often when I was in Laos few years ago. Papaya and cucumber salad are my favourite among other wonderful Laotion salad. Lao-style cucumber salad or called as tum mark dang is delicious and it's perfect to eat with sticky rice. Steamed sticky rice is a staple dish for Laotion and these dish available almost everywhere in Laos.

I've made Lao-style cucumber salad and steamed sticky rice this afternoon just because I craved for these dish since last month. It feels so good to get the tastes of Lao dish once in a while.

LAO-STYLE SPICY CUCUMBER SALAD

Ingredient;

1 cucumber
1 tomato or cherry tomatoes, sliced
1 clove garlic
1-2 Thai chillies
1 tablespoon palm sugar/ brown sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon shrimp paste
Fish sauce to taste

METHOD;

- Peel the cucumber and shredded, set aside.
- Place the garlic, chillies, sugar, lime juice and shrimp paste in the mortar and pound roughly.
- Add the shredded cucumber and tomatoes and gently pound and stir through with the pestle and spoon. I pound little by little because I had a small mortar.
- Season with fish sauce and add more lime juice if needed and gently mix everything.
- Serve with sticky rice and green salad.

Bon appétit!

Seafood Gratin

Coucou,

When we were in Asia few months back, mon mari has made a seafood gratin for my birthday dinner with all the family member. What can I say, everyone in the family gives him thumps up because the food was really delicious. I recently asked him to make seafood gratin again and again because sometime I craving for food with specific texture like crunchy, soft and creamy, and this seafood gratin now is one of my favourite dish.

SEAFOOD GRATIN

Ingredients:

400g fresh seafood (prawns, mussels, scallops, squid and fish)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1cm ginger, chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
1 carrot, julienne
2 cup button mushroom, sliced
1 leek, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1- 1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:

- Preheat oven 180°.
- In a large saucepan, heat up some olive oil and fry garlic, shallot, ginger and chilli until fragrant.
- Add in carrot, mushroom and leeks, and cook until the vegetables are softened but not completely cooked. Season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer the vegetables in a baking dish, set aside.
- Use the same saucepan, heat some oil and cook all the seafood for a couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer the seafood and mix well with the vegetables in the baking dish. Set aside.

To prepare the sauce;
- Melted butter in a saucepan and add flour, continue stirring and pouring the milk little by little.
- Season with salt and pepper and keep stirring for a couple of minutes or until the sauce has thickened slightly.
- Pour the sauce on the vegetables seafood mixture and mix everything well.
- Sprinkle with bread crumbs on top and bake for 40-50 minutes or until the bread crumbs turned golden brown.

Bon appétit!

Stir Fried Pak Choy

Ni hao,

Pak choy or choy sum is a Chinese green vegetables that we can easily find in Asia but not in our area here. Whenever we go to Asian grocery store, I'm sure will buy some because sometime these green vegetables are not always available. Cooking pak choy are easy and with a quick stir-fry, we have a great meal in just a few minute.

Most of the Chinese recipes are quick and easy to prepare and less ingredients needed, but the result turnout great.

STIR FRIED PAK CHOY

Ingredients;

5-6 heads pak choy, cleaned, trimmed and separate the leaves
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved with little water
Salt and pepper to taste
A few drop of sesame oil

METHOD;

- Heat up some oil in a wok or saucepan and fry garlic until fragrant.
- Add pak choy, oyster sauce, soy sauce and season with salt and pepper.
- Stir until coated and toss for a minute.
- Add cornstarch mixture and stir-fry for another minutes.
- Add a few drop of sesame oil and dish out.

Bon appétit!