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

The ' Cempedak' is a fruit native to South East Asia found predominantly in Malaysia and Thailand.  It is closely related to the Jackfruit ~ 'Nangka' and like the Jackfruit it'll also excrete a sticky substance when opened. The yellow flesh surrounding the seeds is very sweet and has a strong, lingering smell but not so overpowering as the durian. Other than eating this fruit fresh or using it as an ingredient for baking, another way is to make them into fritters, dip them in a batter and deep fry them. This way the seeds can be eaten too!

This is as simple as A,B,C ...... plain steamed fish fillet.  Quick and easy to lay on the table and  healthy and nutritious too!  Non-greasy and less washing up!

The Mid-Autumn Mooncake  festival which takes place on the first full moon night of the 8th month of the lunar year is around the corner again.  This year it falls on Wednesday, 22nd September.  Mooncakes are already on sale in the shopping malls and I'm making these Shanghai Mooncakes again.  I used the same recipe as my previous post but this time around, have changed the filling and also tweaked the baking method a wee bit.  To me, this is an improvement on the last one as they look better, once cut up, as I took more pains in shaping them up .......... worth it!

I always had the misconception that Chapati had to be made with ghee and not being a ghee fan, I always preferred to go for roti canai instead.  Now that I know that ghee can be replaced with vegetable oil and since I've tried some Chapati made with vegetable oil recently, I've grown to like it  ............. 'Chapati', unleavened Indian flatbread!

My blog is one year old today!  In a blink of an eye, a year has passed.  I can vividly remember that a year ago I was very sceptical about embarking on this project ........'Blogging', as my IT knowledge is very, very limited.  I dare not say that I've accomplished a lot but knowing my own capabilities, to me this is already an achievement.  I'm glad that I've made so many friends on the blogosphere and had received a lot of encouragement from fellow bloggers and readers. A very big 'Thank you' to all of you, and special thanks to Jacqueline for without her continuing guidance and support, I would not have come this far! To mark this special day, I'm posting a moist, nutty and yummy cake......... "Walnut Streusel Cake"

This 'Fruit Pastry Cake' does not need much introduction as it's been very popular amongst fellow bloggers recently.  Mine is adapted from 'Peng's Kitchen' .   I simplified it a bit as I only used two types of fruits, canned sliced peaches and fresh strawberries.

This 'Koay Teow Bandung' is my favourite whenever I patronise the Idris Room of the Royal Ipoh Club, so much so that the waiter will automatically jot it down whenever he passes me the menu.  The Royal Ipoh Club is more than 100 years old  and dates back a long time during the British colonial rule, totally restricted to whites, like planters, tin miners and administrators. However, the age of the Royal Ipoh Club was fixed by its Management Committee in 1972 based on the establishment of one of the oldest British companies, Osborne and Chapel International, in this historical city that tin built.  The management committee could only guess and agree on the year as Osborne and Chapel was established  about that time. Today, any Malaysian can become a member of this club and it's now a regular meeting place for lawyers as the courthouse is within walking distance from this club.  Check out this  'site'  for more of this Tudor style black and white clubhouse.

This sumptuous chicken dish is very easy to prepare.  All you need to do is to marinate the chicken leg, preferably overnight, then dump them in the oven the next day and in a jiffy, dinner is ready!

Whenever I have the opportunity I like to hang around bakeries and look at the different shapes and patterns of their bread and buns on display.  Yes, for inspiration to experiment.   I recently made these 'Red Bean Rolls' for tea and they still tasted good the next day!

Durian , the King of Fruits in Malaysia is in season now.  This thorny fruit may be fragrant to some but offensive and overpowering to others.  While some may describe the fruit as 'smells like hell but tastes like heaven'!  The long lingering  odour has led to the fruit being banned from hotels and public transportation in South East Asia.  The pulp comes in shades of yellow and white with a subtle flavour, succulent and creamy and if you can stand the smell it's delectable and sweet. Durians are not plucked but allowed to fall and that's the best time for eating.  As they're highly nutritious, it's not advisable to consume this fruit in excess.  Pregnant women and people with high blood pressure are traditionally advised not to consume durian.  The seeds are believed to posess a toxic property that causes shortness of breath.  Also it is generally advised not to have alcohol after consuming durians. Durians are believed to be heaty and one way to counteract

I made this bread a few days ago and thought the plaiting was  fairly easy.  I was and still am not good at any handwork or sewing and was struggling with the 3 strips of dough and that brought back fond memories of my mum.   I had waist length hair when I was little and every morning she would plait my hair into 2 pigtails while I sat munching my bread before I got on the school bus.  I didn't have to do that for my 2 girls because both of them had short  crops and perhaps that explains why I never had the experience of plaiting!

Bitter gourd aka Bitter melon is a tropical vegetable cultivated in China, Africa and South East Asia.  Scientific term for Bitter gourd is Momordica Charantia. There are 2 varieties of this bitter melon.  One is oblong and pale green in colour while the other is smaller, oval and has a darker green colour with more wart-like bumps. This vegetable is enriched with nutrients, rich in magnesium, zinc, manganese, low in calories, cholesterol, sodium and saturated fats.  As the name implies it has a bitter taste and some people may not like it, but bitterness aside, try it for its nutritional virtues!  Do hop over to Wikipedia to know more about this ugly gourd!