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

 The moment I saw this cake at  My Kitchen Snippets , I bookmarked it straightaway.  It's unique and definitely can't be bought over the counter.  I've been procrastinating far too long and finally got down to it recently.  But I substituted the stone fruits with strawberries, blueberries and kiwi.  None of these are fruits with a stone seed, but I throw caution to the winds and as long as the cake tastes good, it's all that matters as far as I'm concerned.

This is a very simple country style chicken dish which will go very well with rice or congee.  It's also a suitable confinement dish for mothers after delivery and if it's for this purpose, then I would suggest using plenty of old ginger instead to help get rid of wind.

I made this 'Cranberry Walnut Banana Cake' based on the same recipe as my post on 'Banana Prune Cake'   and just substituted the prunes with cranberry and added in some walnuts and lemon juice.  For easy reference I'll retype the recipe as follows .......

Bak kwa or Long Yoke are just different names for this BBQ sweetmeat which is a popular delicacy during CNY.  Since I've brought back a packet of '00' Italian flour from Melbourne, thought I'll try making bread with this and came up with 'Bak Kwa ~ BBQ Sweetmeat sandwich loaf'.

I've heard of this famous Devonshire Scones in Mt. Dandenong but never had the chance to visit this place on my previous trips to Melbourne.  This time around I made sure that I won't give this place a miss ........... Miss Marple's Tea-room!   Miss Jane Marple  is a fictitious character created by Britain's famed crime novel writer,   Agatha Christie   to solve crimes based on her observation and knowledge of human nature.  An elderly spinster who lived in the quaint English village of St. Mary Mead, she was first introduced in the novel  'Murder at the Vicarage' in 1930.  If you wish to know more about Miss Marple, check it out  'here'.  Now back to Mt Dandenong and Scones ..........

After tucking in all those rich and oily food during CNY now its time for a simple all-in-one meal.  Quick and easy to prepare with only a few ingredients and the star is the fried silver fish dressing!

'Nian Gao' is a very auspicious item and a must-have during CNY.  Each year, we eat this sticky rice cake as it's symbolic ......'Nin Ko' in Cantonese which literally sounds like 'every year rising or prosper'!  Now tell me, who doesn't wish for achievement and promotion  in their career, prosperity in business, good luck, wealth and excellent health to usher in the New Year?  It's a unanimous Yes, we all do ............

I got hold of this Almond Bread recipe from a very old edition of Australian Women's weekly.  After scrutinising the recipe and on googling for more information I realised that Almond Bread and Biscotti is one and the same cookie/biscuit.  The cookie is very crunchy and there's not a drop of oil.  It's not too sweet either as I've reduced the amount of sugar. Updated on 26th April 2013 .  Many thanks to an anonymous reader who highlighted the difference between Almond Bread and Biscotti.   They're not the same.  Almond Bread has almonds and egg whites while Biscotti calls for whole eggs.

Hi, I'm back!  Made this Abalone Soup for the reunion dinner and the soup was really delicious.  Abalone is 'Bao Yu' in Cantonese, 'Bao' sounds like 'guaranteed' and 'Yu' sounds like 'excess' so put together it sounds like 'guaranteed excess'!   Now, that's something to look forward to, to usher in the New Year!  I used fresh abalone and it was my first experience handling this and thought that it would be a daunting task.  Surprisinlgy it was not to be and removing them from their shells and cleaning them weren't that difficult after all.

I cooked this auspicious dish for the coming reunion dinner ..... 'Braised pork belly with mushrooms and dried oysters'  known as 'Hoe See' in Cantonese and sounds like 'Good business'.  This dish will certainly taste much better if prepared earlier and can be kept in the freezer too.  At least that's one dish  being  taken care of.