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

I name these 'Easy Cupcakes' as I just adapted a very basic pound cake recipe to make them.  The only difference is that I added in jam and reduced quite a substantial amount of sugar, healthwise and pocket wise.  Our Government has just increased the price of sugar and also encouraging Malaysians to cut down on sugar intake!

I never fail to order garlic Naan and Puri whenever I dine in Northern Indian restaurants.  My first attempt at making Naan was edible except that the butter, oil and yoghurt in it made it very heavy and I had to drag my feet to get up and do the dishes after eating two, 4 inch round pieces.  Not to be outdone, I tried again and this time without the butter and it wasn't a disappointment after all.  Served this Naan bread with 'instant' Curry Kapitan ........ yummy!

Malaysians are spoilt for choice where pre-packed cooking sauces and spice mix are concerned.  Without doubt, these are most welcome by busy housewives and working people on the go as they don't have much time to prepare authentic dishes from scratch.  There's a wide variety of these sauces which you can experiment with and tweak to your liking.  Brahim's, Adabi, Singlong, Claypot, Maggi, Seri Murni, A1, just to name a few.  Other than rice, premix sauces also go well with bread, pita bread and roti pratha.  Then there's Maggi and Seriaji seasonings for stir-fry vegetables, rice, vermicelli or noodles and Claypot mix for chicken herbal soups as well. I was ogling at the shelf in the supermarket one day, contemplating and this Seri Murni - 'Kari Kapitan' caught my eye.  I picked up a packet, read the ingredients and instructions, checked the expiry date and came home with it. Yes, I cooked this curry to go with my Naan bread with simple add-ons like sha...

'Steamed Tofu' ~ Beancurd is always a hot favourite with my family whenever we eat out ...... nutritious and for easy digestion especially with oldies around.  For more information on  'Tofu'   read here.

This cake is full of  nutrition and the fibre in the banana and prunes will certainly bring relief to those who have symptoms of constipation!

Half a Shark's fin melon ready for the cooking pot! Cameron Highlands is a very popular week-end getaway for many Malaysians.  Perched 1524 meters above sea level, it comprises of a series of little township like Ringlet, Tanah Rata, Brinchang, Tringkap, Kuala Teria and Kg. Raja.  Access to Cameron Highlands is easy, via Tapah or the new highway @ Simpang Pulai. The cool climate of Cameron Highlands makes it ideal for farming, cultivation of vegetables, fruits and tea besides growing a vast variety of flowers.  Boh Tea plantations is the biggest tea production company in Malaysia. Farms are terraced neatly on the hill sides to maximise land usage, growing a variety of vegetables like tomatoes, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, watercress, lettuce, cabbage, capsicums, leek, potatoes and fruits like strawberries and oranges.  Many of the vegetables are supplied to Singapore and most of them are for Malaysian's consumption and this Shark's Fin Melon is one ...

'Cereal Chicken Chop' ......... After trying out the 'Cereal Prawns' I experimented the premix cereal with chicken but this time I omitted the bird eye chillies.  In fact this cereal is very versatile, can be used for fish fillet as well!  Result, just one word ...... Yummy!

Made this 'Lemon Yoghurt Cake' with the Anolon Bundt tin, a Mother's Day gift from my three musketeers!  I find this bakeware very practical because of the silicone enhanced slip-free handles.....giving it a better grip especially when removing it out from the hot oven!

Fish Head Curry is a very popular curry dish with Malaysians, be it with 'assam', tangy or 'lemak' with coconut milk.  This dish can be found in the menu of most Chinese and Indian-Muslim restaurants.  It comprises mainly of the 'star' i.e. fish head, mostly Garoupa which is more meaty, then vegetables like long beans, okra, aubergine, tomatoes and bean curd puffs, in fact any type of vegetables that you fancy. If you prefer a tangy flavour you add in pureed tomatoes, tamarind paste or tamarind skin.  For a more creamy curry you use fresh coconut milk or you can mix both flavours, creamy and tangy. My version of this curry dish is slightly different from the norm as I used bean curd skin instead of bean curd puffs and prepared fish curry paste from the Kg. Simee wet market.  Also I used soymilk instead of coconut milk as I'm keeping a close tab on my cholesterol!

This 'Chocolate Orange Cake' is from the same recipe as my earlier post on 'Chocolate Lemon Cake' , except that I substituted lemon with orange rind and juice and given the cake a 'facelift'.  I added a chocolate topping trimmed with orange peel for decoration ...... not very good at it though, still plenty of room for improvement!

This dish is as simple as A, B, C ..... just marinate the pork fillet with the seasoning, pan fry till cooked through and you're done.  Load it with some salad for extra fibre and dinner is ready!

As there were some cream corn left from making the muffins, I was toying with the idea of what else to make out of it ..... finally jumped upon the idea of making these sweet 'Lye Yau Pau' or Cream Custard Pau.  As this was my first attempt,  I kept my fingers crossed that they'll turn out well.  I followed the recipe for custard filling from Kristy's blog but tweaked it a bit.  Thanks, Kristy for sharing!

If you have suddenly developed a 'mental block' and can't think of anything else to cook ....... good old 'Fried Rice' is your saviour.  A perfect and delectable one-course meal, wholesome and most reliable!

When I saw Anncoo's post on ' A must try chocolate cupcake' , I KIV and only got to try it out recently. I totally agree with her that these cupcakes were good, moist, soft and tasted much better, chilled.  I only reduced the sugar to 180 gm because I much prefer to have a slight  bitter taste of the chocolate and Nescafe.   This recipe is a keeper for sure.  Thanks Ann!