favourite recipes for everyday cooking and baking

This cake was inspired by the cover of this month's Coles magazine, which actually uses an instant butter cake mix. I decided to make the cake even more festive by making a cream cheese pound cake bursting with fresh cherries, drizzled over some orange glaze icing and decorated it with more cherries! A generous dusting of icing sugar always creates a pretty snowflake effect, and to complete the Christmas wreath look, I added a sprig of mint leaves which I picked from the garden. Little Hilary insisted on "framing" the photo with Christmas decorations... This cake is perfect with a cuppa for afternoon tea, and is fantastic when  served warm with that delicious orange glaze icing. The cream cheese in the cake adds more of a "creamy" texture to the cake, and not so much of flavour. The recipe I used called for maraschino cherries, but I substituted with fresh cherries instead. I reckon you can use cranberries too if you like. I must admit, the...

I was inspired to cook this after trying something similar at Lai Lai Casual Dining, a Taiwanese restaurant in Singapore. It's Taiwanese style braised pork belly with a thick, sweet and salty gravy that is full of  umami flavours. If you're far away from family and feeling homesick, this comforting bowl of braised pork over steamed white rice is just what you need! I usually make a big pot of this and freeze the leftovers for days when I have no time to cook. Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice ("Lu Rou Fan") Ingredients 1kg (2 lbs) pork belly, skin-on 1 tbsp vegetable oil 8 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed 1 star anise 2 inch cinnamon stick 1/2 tsp five-spice powder 1/2 cup light soy sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee Superior Light Soy) 1 tsp thick dark soy sauce (I used Cheong Chan Thick Caramel) 1/3 cup chinese cooking wine 3 cups water 1/4 tsp pepper 2/3 cup crispy fried shallots (I used the prepacked store-bought ones) 3 tbsp (about the size of a ping pong ball) rock s...

It's hard to find a good pad thai in Sydney with the exception of Thai La Ong  where I had the most delicious pad thai with sliced pork. I've only been there once quite a few years ago, but I vividly remember the pad thai which was moist, saucy, and bursting with flavours of tamarind and the charry smokiness from the wok. Nothing like those pale-looking, bland and boring pad thais some other restaurants serve. That was my benchmark for pad thai, and today, I've got the perfect recipe that I hope you will enjoy. The only thing was that I couldn't find thin pad thai rice sticks at the supermarket. So I had to make do with the broader version which was about 1 cm wide. When the craving hits, you just have to make do with what's available! Continue reading to find the recipe. Pad Thai Serves 1 | Prep time: 30 mins | Cook time: 10 mins Ingredients 60g thin pad thai rice sticks Vegetable oil 1/4 large red onion, sliced 1 eggs 2 tsp chopped preserved radish/t...

Grilled Beef with Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients 2 x 220g Scotch fillet beef steaks Ground black pepper Vegetable oil Teriyaki sauce: 1/4 cup Kikkoman soy sauce 1/4 cup mirin 1/4 Japanese cooking sake 2 tbsp brown sugar (or to taste) Method Prepare the sauce first. Combine everything in a saucpan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes or until sauce is reduced to half. Transfer to a heatproof bowl to cool. Place steaks in a ziplock bag (or just use a dish) and add 2 tbsp of the sauce that has cooled down. Add some ground black pepper if desired. Mix well and leave to marinade for about 1 hour. Heat a grillpan or frying pan on high, lightly greased with some oil. Drain the excess marinade from the steaks and fry the steaks for about 3 minutes each side. Pour in 1-2 tbsp of teriyaki sauce and let it coat the steaks. When the steaks are cooked (medium rare), transfer to a plate and let it rest for 5 minutes, covered with aluminium foil. Reserve any remaining sauce in the pan for later. Sli...

The addition of milk and ricotta in this recipe makes for a light, fluffy and creamy cheesecake. Cheddar and Ricotta Cheesecake Ingredients 110g cheddar cheese slices, roughly torn 40g butter 125ml milk 70g ricotta cheese 20g plain flour 15g corn flour 2 egg yolks 3 egg whites 1/4 tsp cream of tartar 80g sugar Method Grease and line an 8 inch square baking pan with baking paper. If using springform pan, wrap the outside of the pan with 2 layers of aluminium foil as the cake will be baked in a water bath. Prepare a large roasting tin (large enough to fit the baking pan in). You can start boiling some water for the water bath. Preheat oven to 150C. Place cheddar cheese, butter and milk in a bowl and place over a pot of simmering water. Stir the ingredients until dissolved and the mixture turns smooth and creamy. Remove from heat. Then stir in the ricotta until evenly mixed. Sift the plain flour and cornflour into the mixture and fold through until smooth. Then, stir in the egg yolks. In ...

One of the best cooking tips that I picked up from watching Take Home Chef was that when cooking salmon, you should always start with a cold pan, and never hot. That will give you perfectly crispy salmon skin. I tried this method and it totally worked! Crispy skin everytime, which is the main reason why we love to eat salmon , especially with sweet, salty and sticky teriyaki sauce. I usually make extra sauce and store it in the fridge, which comes in handy not only for grilled meats/seafood, but also for quick stir-fries, noodles or as a tasty drizzling sauce. Served with rice and some steamed vegetables, teriyaki salmon is a sure fire hit with the kids (and adults too)! We especially love the sauce on our rice! Crispy-Skin Salmon Teriyaki Ingredients 2 x 200g (7oz) salmon fillets, skin-on (preferably a thick and long rectangular piece) 1 tbsp vegetable oil Teriyaki Sauce: 5 tbsp Kikkoman soy sauce 5 tbsp sake 5 tbsp mirin...

I was pretty excited when I saw that Lorraine  had posted this wonderful recipe for Pad Thai on her blog. The photos simply said it all. The almost deep and rich orange hue of the noodles was the sign of a winner and it's as authentic as it gets. None of the dry, pale-looking noodles with dry chunks of chicken meat and scattering of chives, egg and tofu that I usually get in Sydney. For the record, I never order pad thai though Mr TFWL likes to always give it a chance. My preference is still to order pad kee mao (my favourite pad kee mao is from Pom's Thai in Burwood, now Strathfield). Anyway, this is how I like my pad thai - saucy and moist noodles with the right balance of sweet and sour from the tamarind and palm sugar, with saucy bits of egg crumble tossed through the noodles. Notice the key word is saucy. Loving this pad thai sauce and if you make a big batch of it, the rest of the preparation and cooking is a breeze (well, almost!). Thanks  Lorraine  for the recipe!...

It's been a long long while since my last post. Summer has been super hot these last few days and we've been staying indoors (although the air-conditioning didn't work too well in these extreme conditions). It didn't help that I decided to bake  yesterday afternoon knowing that it was already as hot as an oven outside! So, ever since i tried the Polish plum cake from Monarch Cakes at St Kilda a couple of years ago, I've been wanting to bake something similar though I never settled on which recipe to use (there are a few on the internet, where they differ in terms of whether butter or oil is used, and some are yeast-based (which is apparently the traditional Polish version). With plums being in season right now, I decided it was time I made the attempt to bake a light, airy, sponge-like cake studded with tart plums that have caramaelized to a jammy consistency. Well, at least that's how I remembered it. Ready for tea with a dusting of icing sugar Although using b...

This quick and easy ice-cream dessert is great if you're serving a large crowd at a party. It's also very convenient as you only need to slice and serve - no plates, cups or utensils required! Even the pan doesn't need washing up! Honeycomb Ice-cream Sandwich Ingredients 1 packet rectangular-shaped biscuits (I used Arnotts Milk Coffee, but you can use plain, chocolate or other flavour) 1 1/4 cup thickened/heavy whipping cream 5 tbsp condensed milk 1 chocolate bar (Crunchie, Violet crumble, or Cherry Ripe if you prefer), roughly chopped Method Whisk cream and condensed milk until thick and almost stiff. Fold in the chopped chocolate bar until evenly mixed. Line an 8 inch square tin with clingwrap, leaving the sides overhanging with enough to fold over later. Arrange biscuits on the base. Pour the cream mixture over. Arrange another layer of biscuits on top. Cover with clingwrap and freeze for 8 hours or overnight. Slice into sections and serve.

I do enjoy having pancakes for breakfast once in a while, though not really as a dessert unless they are thin crepe-like ones filled with cream cheese and served with strawberry sauce (sounds familiar? Pancakes on the Rocks??). On the weekends, while I'm still half asleep in bed in the morning, the kids would come close to me and scream into my ear "Mummy! Wake up! Can you make me some pancakes/french toast/scrambled eggs for breakfast?!!". I've made pancakes on several occasions using various recipes, and I found that the simplest one is the best. These pancakes don't use fancy ingredients and can be prepared in minutes. You really don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen making breakfast nor cleaning up after that. Moreover, the kids think I can just make food appear on the table at the snap of my fingers, or nod of the head, blink of the eyes....you know. Hungry kids just want their food quickly, because if you make them wait too long, ...

 Here's a new and improved recipe for Char Kuay Teow (fried rice noodles), a popular street food in Malaysia. Try this version and let me know what you think :) Char Kuay Teow Serves 1 Ingredients 2-3 tbsp lard (or substitute with vegetable oil) 4 prawns, peeled 6 thinly sliced fishcake 6 thinly sliced Lup Cheong (Chinese sausage) 1/2 tbsp finely chopped garlic 200g fresh rice noodles (separate the strands before cooking) 1 cup beansprouts A handful garlic chives (cut into 2 inch lengths) 1 egg Sauce (mix together in a bowl): 1 tbsp light soy sauce 1/2 tbsp Cheong Chan thick caramel (dark soy) 1 tbsp oyster sauce 1/2 tbsp kecap manis 1/2 tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp chicken stock powder Dash of white pepper 1 tbsp water Chilli paste: 1 cup dried red chillies, deseeded and soaked in warm water for 3-4 hours 1-2 fresh red chillies 2 shallots 3 cloves garlic Sugar and salt to taste Vegetable oil for frying Method Prepare chilli paste first. Drain the dried chillies that hav...

These are the BEST EVER, absolutely moreish and delicious Sicilian almond cookies you'll ever taste. With a thin and crispy crust outside, and amazingly soft and chewy inside, it's quite impossible to stop at one. The secret is to use roasted almond meal, which gives it a rich nutty and almost caramel-like flavour. Continue reading for the recipe. Italian Almond Cookies Adapted from Good Food Ingredients 250g roasted almond meal 3 egg whites, beaten until stiff 150g white sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 1/2 tsp almond essence Icing sugar, to coat biscuits Flaked almonds Method Using your hands or a large spoon, mix all ingredients (except icing sugar) together in a bowl and rest for 1/2 an hour. Preheat oven to 180C. Make small balls of about 3 cm by rolling them between your palms, then lightly roll them in the icing sugar. If the mixture is too soft, that's okay. Just drop spoonfuls of the mixture in the icing sugar and gently roll them until covered all over with sugar. ...

Brought to you by Nuffnang and Vinomofo . When I was asked to review a product from Vinomofo , I had no idea what it was about until Nuffnang told me that they would be sending me two bottles of wine. The name Vinomofo is a funny one, until I recalled "vino" means wine in Italian, and "mofo"....oh well, I was curious as to how the name came about. So I read the mile-long "About" page on the Vinomofo website which talks about how a bunch of wine geeks went a roller-coaster journey to build the most epic wine site in the  universe. Or was that planet? Anyway, you should check out some of the wines available on their website. They also have "secret deals" where the only way they can get their hands on them is by agreeing to keep the identity of the wine and the producer secret. Sounds good already!  They also co-produce their own branded wines, labelled " Kinda Independent Wine Company " that isn't available elsewhere. I was fortuna...

Best ever Korean Fried Chicken (IMHO). Need I say more? Think of crispy chewy and crunchy batter coated in a candy-like sweet, spicy and sticky glaze. And oh yeah, the chicken. Juicy. Delicious. Yummy. Continue reading to find the recipe. Korean Fried Chicken with Sweet and Spicy sauce Ingredients 800g (about 1 lb) chicken wings (drummettes and mid-wings, separated) 1 1/2 teaspoon salt Canola/Vegetable oil for deep-frying Sesame seeds for garnishing (optional) Batter: 2/3 cup plain flour 1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch 3/4 cup water Sauce: 1 tbsp vegetable oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 small red chilli pepper, finely chopped (optional if you want more heat) 1 tbsp light soy sauce 5 tbsp corn syrup 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (or rice wine vinegar) 2 tsp brown sugar 2 tsp gochujang (Korean chilli paste) Method Prepare sauce first. Fry garlic (and chilli if used) in the oil, for half a minute, but don't let it brown. Add the rest of the ingredients for the sauce and simmer for 1-2 minutes ...

This is a repost of an old favourite! This is an old favourite of mine since I was little. Typically served in chinese restaurants in BP, we would often order a plate or two of it at the end of the meal. It is a thin, flaky and crispy rectangular-shaped pancake that is usually filled with a thin layer of red bean or white lotus paste, and then cut into small rectangular bite-sized pieces. I decided to make this after browsing through a cookbook called "Dim Sum" where I came across a picture of an appetizing looking "Wo Paeng". I could just imagine the taste of it - sweet, crispy and oily. The recipe looked simple enough. However, the proportions and method of pan-frying it just didn't do it for me. I found another recipe on the web which looked like it would yield better results, and it did! Of course, it involved deep-frying the pancake to a golden crisp, just as I remembered it. I sprinkled some toasted pinenuts in the filling to add ...

I told myself I was not going to make pineapple tarts this year. It's just too much effort and physically challenging (for someone of my age) and I figured I'd just wait for friends passing through Singapore to bring back tarts for me to eat. No thanks to Facebook, I keep seeing posts of pineapple tarts spilled across the page, made by my baker/foodie friends. I tried to resist the temptation, really (for almost a day). I admit I have a terrible weakness for pineapple tarts. I've made them every year since I moved to Sydney and had to D.I.Y. these CNY ("Chinese New Year") delicacies to satiate my cravings. After all, it's not CNY until you've had pineapple tarts (and bak kwa , but that's another story). And so, last night, I bought pineapples and made pineapple jam, so that I could roll them into balls and make the tarts this morning. By noon, the pineapple tarts were ready and mission accomplished for January 2016 (although that was not my new year...

Sayur lodeh is a vegetable curry commonly found in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. The version I grew up with contains cabbage, eggplant, long beans, deep-fried tofu (and sometimes tofu puffs) and glass noodles. I made this for lunch today and it turned out perfect (really!) and so I decided to post the recipe here in case I forget how to replicate the dish next time. Cooking is a bit of trial and error sometimes, especially with Asian cooking. I think I've got the recipe down as accurately as I can, and it's super duper delicious with rice (or even on its own). Malaysian Vegetable Curry (Sayur Lodeh) Serves 6 Ingredients 1 packet (300g) deep fried tofu 1 cup sliced carrots 3 cups cabbage (about 1/4 of a cabbage), cut into 2 inch strips 2 cups green/long beans, cut into 2 inch lengths 2 eggplants (the long and slender type), sliced into 2 inch halves 2 pieces kaffir lime leaves, torn and crushed 4 cups water 1 1/2 teaspoon ikan bilis stock powder 1 tablespoon palm sugar 1/2...

I've been eating too much Korean Fried Chicken lately it's not funny. I decided to try a healthy Korean dish this time which is a stew made with beef short ribs. It's cooked in a light soy-based broth that reminds me of bulgogi, but made into a stew instead. It contains honey and mirin, and so tends to be on the sweet side. It's a nice change from the salty braised pork belly stew that I'm so used to at home. Galbi  in Korean translates to "shortrib" and " jjim " refers to dishes made by steaming or boiling. Galbijjim (Korean Braised Beef Short Ribs) Adapted from Korean Bapsang Ingredients 3 pounds meaty beef short ribs 1/2 onion 3 -4 thin ginger slices 5 garlic cloves 3 white parts of scallions Braising Liquid: 1/2 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons honey (I omitted this) 1/4 cup rice wine (or mirin) 2 tablespoons of sesame oil 1/2 medium Asian pear, grated (about 1/2 cup) 1/2 small onion grated 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 teaspoon...

Loving this simple dish that's kid-friendly, yet perfect for a weeknight family meal if you're looking for something quick and easy to prepare. I love eggs, and especially scrambled eggs . This chicken mince rice bowl is served with an egg crumble, which is made by scrambling the eggs with a pair of chopsticks until it turns into crumbs (of course!). Leftovers also make great lunchboxes for kids the next day. Soboro Don Source: Adam's Big Pot Ingredients 1 tbsp vegetable oil 500g chicken mince ¼ cup soy sauce ¼ cup sake 2 tbsp caster sugar 2 tbsp mirin ¼ cup water 2 cups snow peas, tailed 8 cups steamed short-grain rice, To serve 1 sheet nori, finely sliced, to serve EGG CRUMBLE 4 eggs 2 tbsp mirin 1 tsp caster sugar Method Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the chicken mince. Fry the mince until it turns white (you don't need to brown it) and add the soy sauce, sake, sugar, mirin and water. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally for about 10 m...

Curry puffs are a staple teatime snack in Malaysia and Singapore, along with other tasty favourites such as banana fritters (with chili soy sauce!), sweet potato donuts (and many other deep-fried snacks!). Maybe it's just me, but whenever I'm in Malaysia, I'm constantly eating round the clock - breakfast, mid-morning snack, brunch, lunch, dessert, afternoon tea, evening snack, dinner, snack again followed by supper. Fortunately, there's a wide variety of food to choose from across different cuisines, plus there are different food stalls that operate from early morning till past midnight, and some even over 24 hours. Curry puffs are also known as epok-epok or karipap in Malaysia. I've made various types which you can find here , here  and  here . The recipe below is another version that uses oil and margarine, which gives it a firmer yet crispy texture, and equally delicious. According to my mum, the "makcik" (auntie in Malay) selling curry puff in Malays...