No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

When I saw MaryMoh 's post on Okra and Anchovies stir-fry, it reminded me of this simple, quick and easy dish that my mum used to whip up for us  ...........Steamed minced pork with silver fish, which we call 'ngan yu chai'.... baby silver fish because of its size.

A healthy and delicious morning or tea treat  ........ Pineapple oat and date muffins.  Taste great especially fresh from the oven!

It's been quite a while since I cooked curry.  So, managed to squeeze in this for dinner .... simple, just cook the curry, rice and blanch a vegetable and dinner is ready.

We were having a short weekend holiday in Penang island recently and took the opportunity to check out the Japanese and Carvery buffet dinner @ Cititel.  The buffet was from 7pm to 10pm and we arrived shortly after 8pm as there was a traffic jam along the way.  Fortunately, I had called up to make a reservation as when we arrived, the place was already fully booked.  The buffet was at this Main Street cafe.  One thing that caught my eye was that nearly half of the diners were senior citizens ......... seniors only pay RM35/- nett while it's RM60/- nett for adults and RM30/- nett for children. Photographing the buffet spread was prohibited so I only managed to snap a few pictures of what we had that night ....... so you can let me know whether it's value for money!

When I posted 'Prawn fritters' recently, Angie of Angie's Recipes asked whether the batter is suitable for making onion rings.  That's food for thought.  I do remember that the 'Onion Chicken' dishes served in the restaurants, the onion rings had a bit of sweet fragrance.  I experimented and was pleased that I managed to come up with this recipe for onion rings ..... well, at least these rings stayed crispy for some time, quite close to those that I had tasted.

I tried my hands at making these buns, with the help of my breadmaker of course and I was certainly glad I did.  Left  2 buns overnight to test out the texture and they were still soft and cottony the next day!  Will definitely be making more of these.

I was at the Kg. Simee market last weekend and took the opportunity to look for the stall that sold a variety of prepared curry pastes for fish, meat, spicy, tangy, whatever you name it, the lady had it.  The stall proved to be very popular because when I was there, nearly all the pastes were sold out except for  a bit of leftovers.  She recommended me to get this Thai spicy paste, for only 2 ringgit, enough to steam a whole fish, I was told.  The sauce was good, tangy  and it was indeed spicy!

I recently had lunch with some friends at 1919 Restaurant, in Bandar Baru Medan.  This restaurant is by the side of Tesco and behind Jaya Jusco.  Since there were seven of us, so each of us ordered a dish and when it came to my turn, I ordered my favourite, Yam Kerabu or 'Fatt putt kerabu'.

This is my 3rd attempt at making this and yes, I've finally managed to concoct the recipe for the batter.  This batter has a crispy texture and stays that way for quite a while.  These fritters were devoured in no time!

Blueberry and Pineapple  ......  will it work, I was asking myself.  These were the only fruits that were left in the fridge and as I've never tried this combination before, why not give it a shot!  Surprisinly I wasn't disappointed for it turned out swell!

Braised Hakka mee/noodles which in fact in Cantonese is 'Sam See Mun Meen' ..... what a mouthful!  'Sam See' here means 'three shreds', 'Mun  Meen' means braised noodles.  The 'three shreds' in this case are mushrooms, chicken and pork all sliced up.   This is a very easy to whip up one-dish-meal which is tasty enough yet wholesome.

ABC soup is a very common, easy to make nutritious soup, but as I have corn, celery and carrot in this concotion, how best to name it but the 3 C's soup!

This was one of my mum's signature dish ...... Pork Ribs with Pickled Cucumber.  My siblings and I relished this and will 'kar fan', meaning 'add more rice' whenever she served this on the table.

After all the 'sinful' food we have had, it's time for a simple and easy peasant dish  ........ Pumpkin, carrot with dried shrimps.

This is my last batch of prawns that I've stocked up for CNY and I cooked this for 'Chap Goh Mei', the last day of the lunar New Year and the first 15th day of the year.  These prawns have been in the freezer for more than a month, yet they stayed 'springy' and succulent.  Do hop over to this site if you want to know more of 'Chap Goh Mei' in Malaysia.