Tangy Hot Ribs

This dish always reminds me of Buffalo Wings. They are not the same though, as this one I cooked is not as hot. It's more tangy. The only thing that made it hot is the black pepper. If you can handle hot stuff, add some Tabasco to the sauce. I can never take that. Too hot for me.


Ingredients:

• 300g Pork Ribs (You can use Chicken Wings too)
• A dash of Salt and Pepper
• Cornflour for dusting
• Oil for frying

Sauce:

• 4 tablespoon Tomato Sauce
• 2 tablespoon Sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 tablespoon Apple Cider or White Vinegar
• 2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tablespoon Water
  

How to do it:

1. Marinade the ribs or wings with salt and pepper for at least 30 minutes.
2. Dust with cornflour and deep fry them till golden brown.
3. Leave on paper towel to drain.
4. Combine ingredients for sauce in a sauce pan on low heat.
5. When the sauce starts to bubble, add in the ribs.
6. Stir to coat ribs well with sauce.
7. Serve.
   

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.

Papaya Soup 木瓜鱼片鸡汤

My daughter doesn't likes fruits but surprisingly she will take soup with fruits in it. My son on the other hand, hates it. I just can't please everyone, can I?

This is one of the fruit soups that my daughter like, which my son hates. It's nice and nourishing. Do you know, Papaya with fish soup is very good for nursing mothers too.


Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Drumstick or 250g Pork Ribs (I use Chicken here)
• 200g Snakehead Fish, sliced
• 500g Papaya, skinned and seed (I use pear shaped "Dole" papaya from Philippines)
• 2 slice Ginger
• 2.5 litre Water
• Salt to taste

How to do it:

1. Blanched chicken or pork and set aside.
2. Lightly pan fry fish with very little oil till slightly brown.
3. Put all ingredients except salt and papaya and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer for another 1 hour.
5. Add in the papaya and continue to simmer for another hour.
6. Add salt to taste.
7. Serve.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.

Lychee and Lime Drink

Weather is super hot lately, especially during noon time. I feel like sitting in a bubble bath filled bath tub after I fetch the kids home from school, except I don't have a bath tub. So the first time I do when I reach home is head straight to my fridge to grab something cold to drink.

Yesterday, I left a can of lychee in the fridge so I could fix something cool and refreshing today. This is what I made to cool myself off.

What's in the drink?

• 150ml Syrup from the canned lychee
• 50ml Ice cold water
• Juice from 3 Limes
• 6 Lychees or more if you like
• Additional lime, sliced and some *mint leaves (optional)
• *Lemongrass as toothpick for the lychees (optional)
  

Just mix all ingredients together and serve chilled. Ahhh ....



* Leftovers I found in my fridge which I used as decoration purpose here.

Blanched Prawns with Sweet Mustard

You know, prawns with mayonnaise is always a very popular dish. Everyone doesn't seem to get bored with that dish. But I get bored cooking that dish too often. :P

So, for a change and something much much more simpler, I did this. It's like the cold dish we get at Chinese wedding dinner but then those were served with mayonnaise (again). Mine, I served it with sweet mustard.

It's super simple. You just need to blanch your prawns then submerged them in previously boiled cooled water. Next, you remove all the shells and sliced them in halves. Arrange them on a plate, spread sweet mustard sparingly over it or you can serve the sauce separately and it's all done. Simple?

For the sweet mustard sauce, I add an additional 1/2 tablespoon of honey to 1 1/2 tablespoon of sweet mustard to make it milder. If you are using 'normal' mustard, you might have to add more honey.

Try this if you want something fast and easy.

Roasted Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary

The other day, I did BBQ Ribs for dinner and I made potatoes to go with it. The ribs were flavourful and it goes really well with these potatoes.

Seriously, I could eat the potatoes alone. It's really nice and quite filling too.



Ingredients:

• 4 fist-sized Potatoes, scrubbed cleaned and cut in chunks.
• 5 glove Garlic, lightly crushed
• 2 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 2 teaspoon Dried Rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder (optional)
• A pinch of Salt
• A dash of Ground Black Pepper

How to do it:

1. Mix everything well in a oven proof dish or alternatively, put everything in a ziploc bag and shake to mix well before pouring out to the dish.
2. Roast in 200C oven for 1 hour or till potatoes are tender.
3. Remove every15 minutes to give it a stir so potatoes at the bottom of the dish are roasted too.
4. Sprinkle additional salt and pepper to taste if you like.

Note:
You can peel of the skin if you like but I prefer the skin on.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.

* Half slab of BBQ Ribs with Roasted Potatoes *

Swiss Roll for dinner?

I haven't make kid's meal for a long time. It's a good sign because this means my son has no eating problem. Then why did I make one today? Well, it because I was very pleased that he finished a whole plate of Chicken Rice this afternoon on his own and he didn't take very long to do it too. I have been waiting for this day to come. *smiles* So, I thought I will spend some time to make his dinner interesting like before, just for today.

What I had in mind was those swiss roll with cream and fruits inside. I should have chopped up the veggies and mixed it with the fish paste. It will look more convincing and nicer but but but ... my mistake. It didn't look anything close to a swiss roll. Still looked more like Sushi. But he still enjoyed it anyway. Oh well!

In case you are wondering, it's normal cooked rice (I didn't use Japanese short grain rice) wrapped fish paste roll and top with furikake.

Ladies Kisses

I saw the picture of this cute looking cookie from a Multiply site and messaged the lady if she could share the recipe with me. A few days later, she replied with the recipe! I didn't expect her to be so willing to share it. Afterall, she paid to go for the lesson. I would understand if she didn't. It was so gracious of her.

So thanks to her, now anyone who's reading this will have this recipe too. *smiles*


Ingredients:

• 110g whole hazelnuts or almonds (I used ready prepared grounded almond)
  
• 100 g icing sugar
• 100 g unsalted butter1/4 tsp grated lemon
• 120 g superfine flour (I used Top Flour)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 75g chocolate, cut into small pieces

How to do it:

1. Toast hazelnuts or almonds in a frying pan over a very low heat, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Cool and rub off skins only on hazelnuts as the almonds skins do not rub off easily. Cool. (Skip this if you are using ready grounded nuts.)
   
2. Line 2-3 baking trays with non-stick parchment paper. Preheat oven to 160C
   
3. Place nuts and icing sugar in a food processor and grind to a coarse powerly texture. Set aside.
   (Just sift the icing sugar if you are using grounded nuts.)
   
4. Soften butter by beating in a small mixing bowl with a wooden spoon. Add the nut mixture and grated rind and beat until creamy.
   
5. Add flour and salt, mixing just long enough to mix well - do not overwork. The dough should be firm but not crumbly.
   
6. Pinch off very small balls of dough (1/2 a teaspoon) and roll in balls.
   
7. Arrange, evenly space with room for a bit of spreading on the paper-lined baking trays.
   
8. Bake for about 15 minutes or until cookies are very lightly coloured - do not over-brown.
   
9. Cool cookies on rack.
   
10. Gently melt chocolate in a small bowl over simmering water, stirring constantly - heat until chocolate melts.
    
11. Cool slightly until chocolate starts to thicken.
    
12. Transfer into a disposable plastic piping bag and snip a small hole at the base of the bag.
    
13. Arrange half the cookies - flat side up - on a tray and pipe a small blob of chocolate on each cookies.
    
14. Allow chocolate to set slightly, before sandwiching with the remaining half of the cookies. Store in an airtight container.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.

* Individual Cookies before they get married *

Broccoli Fish Balls with Vegetables

Okay, this is a kid's side dish. Yay, It doesn't look like a kiddy food. But they find it interesting that their food is served in a spoon instead of the usual. And since I sort of stack the food in layers and there isn't space for them to push the food they don't want aside, they just have to try to eat it. I told them, it's only two small pieces (of mushroom). That did the trick!

Ingredients

• 150g Fish Paste
• 1-2 tablespoon chopped Broccoli (I didn't use the stem part)
• 16 stalk Shimeiji Mushroom
• 8 Baby Corn, sliced half length-wise
• 5 tablespoon Broth
• Cornflour Mixture (thickener)
• Salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon Minced Garlic
• Oil for cooking

How to do it:

1. Mix fish paste with broccoli.
2. Shape it into 8 balls and set in a bowl of water.
3. Drain and place in a dish to steamed till cooked.
4. Set aside.
5. Heat wok with oil.
6. Saute garlic till fragrant.
7. Add in the baby corn and stir fry for 15 seconds.
8. Add in mushroom and continue stir frying for another 10 seconds.
9. Add in the broccoli fish balls and the broth.
10. Simmer for 1 minute.
11. Add salt to taste.
12. Gradually stir in the thickener.
13. Dish and serve.

Note:
I'm trying to encourage the kids to eat the vegetables. Too much of it will put them off.
So instead of the above said amount, you can add more mushroom and babycorn and also shape more than 8 broccoli fish balls.

• Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.