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

This is a nutritous soup made from fresh ' Huai Shan ' aka Diosocrea Opposita with pitted red dates, gojiberries and Yuzhu aka Polygonatum root .  'Huai Shan' is the Chinese name while it is  known as Nagaimo in Japanese.  Once the skin of the 'Huai Shan' is peeled off, it's very slimy exposing a mucous substance similar to okra but once it is boiled in water, the mucous substance will disappear and the slices of 'Huai Shan' remains crunchy. Pitted red dates, fresh 'Huai Shan', Gojiberries and Yuzhu.   Recipe for 'Huai Shan' Pork Ribs Soup Ingredients 350 gm pork ribs 350 gm fresh 'Huai Shan' 10 gm gojiberries 40 gm red dates, pitted 30 gm Yuzhu 10 cups of water Seasalt to taste Method Blanch the pork ribes in boiling hot water to remove scum, drain and rinse in running water.  Set aside. Bring to the boil, 10 cups of water and add in the red dates and

I stumbled upon this Guinness Tea Loaf recipe from ' The Secret Tea Room'.  Not only does this loaf  taste soft and moist with only a slight tinge of stout, it's extremely easy to make.   I've tweaked the method a little and reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe.  Hope some of you may like to try it and I'll be glad to have your feedback! Recipe for Guinness  Tea Loaf   ( adapted from  The Secret Tea Room   with  modification) Ingredients 60 gm raisins, chopped 60 gm pitted dates, chopped 165 ml Guinness stout 1 egg lightly beaten 135 gm self-raising flour 100 gm light brown sugar Icing sugar (optional) Method Add Guinness stout to dried fruits, cover and leave overnight in the refrigerator. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar to mix well. Mix in the beaten egg followed by the Guinness and dried fruits.  Stir just to combine. Pour into a parchment lined 8.1/2 x 4.1/2 x 3 in

This is an old-time favourite and I'm quite sure that most Chinese households must have served this dish at one time or another.  Whenever I cook this, I will always store any excess stock in the freezer to cook pork belly with it and will  normally toss in some hard-boiled eggs and fried bean curd as well.

This is a light and moist lemony cake with a hint of strawberry.  Do be liberal with the greasing and dusting of the Bundt pan as the strawberry may stick to it when unmoulding.  Great cake to go with tea or coffee! Recipe for Lemon Strawberry Bundt Cake Ingredients 13 oz butter 12 oz plain flour 6 to 7 oz strawberries or any berries of your choice 10 oz caster sugar 2 oz granulated sugar 6 Tbsp milk 4 eggs + 2 egg yolks 2  tsp vanilla 2  Tbsp lemon zst 1.1/2  tsp baking powder A pinch of salt Syrup to glaze -  Mix 3 Tbsp lemnon juice with 1.1/2 Tbsp caster sugar Method Heat berries in a pot to release juice.  Add in 2 oz granulated sugar, cook over medium heat till juicy and moisture reduces to a little under 1/2 cup.  Let cool completely. Sift flour with baking powder and salt, set aside. Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.  Add in eggs one at a time, mix well. Fold in sifted flour alternatively with milk, starting with

Serve this delicious creamy chicken soup nice and hot.  It's comfy and tasty yet quick and easy to prepare!

It's been quite a while since I made any buns.  Spotted some nice fresh looking yam at the market which gave me an idea for trying to make some yam paste.  Not so happy with the 'deceitful' nice looking yam as it wasn't that 'powdery' which resulted in my not so creamy yam paste.

Have you ever tried making cookies with booze?  I did, as I had all the ingredients at hand and moreover I was dying to get rid of the Guinness in my fridge.   No regrets when I was greeted with 'tipsy', chewy and aromatic cookies!

I've a soft spot for yam and can't resist buying them from the market whenever I see fresh ones. Came up with this dish which I can easily have it on its own ....... I'll eat the yam first, the chicken is secondary.