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

B lack currant chiffon cake was  what I made recently .......yes, with black currant jam.  Being my first attempt at making a chiffon cake with jam, I was initially worried about the end result, whether the cake will collapse, etc. So I kept a close watch on the baking process and constantly checked on the progress during baking. I heaved a big sigh of relief when I saw it rose beautifully in the oven and more pleased when  it didn't collapse at the sides upon inverting!

A delicous yet easy to prepare mouth-watering sourish curry dish which will definitely tantalise your tastebuds.  Instead of coconut milk, I used sugarless soymilk  and it tasted just as good. This dish will make you refill your bowls or plates with more rice and leave the table, satisfied and contented ........ burp!

W ith Mandarin oranges aplenty at this time of the year I was toying with the idea of baking a cake with these sweet-tangy citrus.   The cake was moist and dense but on the whole it was delicious served as breakfast, tea or as a snack.  What I liked most was the crispy sugary crust.

F rom the kitchen of 'No-Frills Recipes' here comes piping hot and sweet smelling 'Bak Kwa rolls'.  I made these rolls with Bak Kwa or sweet dried meat leftover from Chinese New Year.  They were soft and delectable with the Bak Kwa and I saved up two rolls for breakfast the next day.  Surprisingly they were still soft although I added some wholemeal flour to this recipe.

I'm a big fan of Taro ~ Yam and we were introduced to this dish when we dined at a restaurant just before Chinese New Year.  It became an instant hit with my family members and I didn't hesitate to stock up this baby kai lan and taro before the market place closed for the festive season.  Managed to replicate this dish to suit our palate and it was delicious.

To combat the current hot weather these days, I made this konnyaku jelly with honey citron tea to ward off the heat from our body system.  Honey citron tea known as Yuja in Korean and Yuzu in Japanese is a traditional Korean tea known to be a good cold and flu remedy.  It contains 1.5 times more natural vitamin C then the orange and taking this helps to overcome fatique as well.  Making a hot drink with a couple of teaspoons of this jelly marmalade makes a very soothing beverage for sore throat.  Here's what I did and you'll agree with me that it's super easy.

' N ian Gao' ~ the sticky glutinous rice cake is regarded as an auspicious item during the Chinese New Year as its round shape signifies family reunion and harmony and its sweetness symbolises a rich, sweet life.  'Nian' sounds similar to 'year' and 'Gao' is 'high' in Chinese, thus Nian Gao implies promotion and prosperity year after year.  Hence it's a common practice that these glutinous rice cakes are piled up on the altar as an offering to the Gods with a wish for abundance in all aspects for the coming year!

A rrow heads or 'Nga Ku' in Cantonese are considered special as they're only available once a year and that is during the Chinese NewYear.  Arrow heads , an aquatic tuber plant are perceived to be  auspicious because of the tiny offshoots protruding from the bulbs ~ a  symbol of reproductivity.  It is hoped that the consumption of 'nga ku', more so among the newlyweds will help bring forth more sons who will carry on with the family name.  The Chinese leeks or 'shuen' in Cantonese carries a homonym that sounds like 'counting money' which is associated with wealth and prosperity and everything symbolic for the Year of the Dragon!