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

This is a luscious rich, moist chocolately cake.  The Guinness stout does pair well with the chocolate, although the taste of stout is not overwhelming.  Definitely tastes much better the next day. Recipe for Guinness Chocolate Cake   (adapted from Nigella Lawson with slight modification) Ingredients 250 ml Guinness Stout    250 gm butter 45 gm cocoa powder 220 gm brown sugar 110 gm caster sugar 3/8 cup yoghurt (measuring cup halfway between 1/4 and 1/2) 2 eggs 1/2  Tbsp vanilla 275 gm plain flour 2.1/2  tsp baking soda A pinch of salt Method Sift the flour with baking soda and salt, set aside. Melt the butter and Guinness stout.  Remove from heat, add sugar, cocoa and whisk together.  Let cool. Beat yoghurt, eggs and vanilla till thoroughly combined. Add to stout mixture and whisk together.  Add sifted flour and whsk again till smooth.  Batter is a bit runny. Pour batter into a well greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake in a preheated oven @ 18

I was curious when I saw this post by Ann of  Anncoojournal .  Never thought of adding 'Bak Kwa' or BBQ meat into cookies....hmmm wonder how the cookies would taste.   To satisfy my curiosity I made them and was not disappointed at all.  They were not too sweet, a wee bit savoury,  fragrant and chewy, not a bad choice cookie for the Chinese New Year! Recipe for Bak Kwa Cookies ~ CNY 2013   (adapted from Anncoojournal but with slight modifications) Ingredients 75 gm butter 50 gm shortening 35 gm icing sugar 1/2 an egg 1/2  tsp vanilla 200 gm plain flour, sifted 65 gm Bak Kwa, diced small Method Cream butter, shortening and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in egg and beat till well mixed. Add vanilla, mix well. Fold in sifted flour and add in the Bak Kwa pieces, mix thoroughly. Shape the dough roughly into a rectangle,  wrap up in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 mins. till firm. Cut up the dough into slices and place them on a par

This is my first attempt cooking this dish and I'm glad that it turned out well.  The dish is indeed very tasty and the briny oyster proves to be a perfect compliment to the mushroom.  It tasted much better the next day.  I'll definitely be making this dish for the Chinese New Year reunion dinner as it can be prepared a day or two ahead and kept in the freezer.   Moreover, oysters are called 'Hoe Si' in Cantonese which means 'good tidings' and it's most auspicious for the New Year! Recipe for Braised Spare Ribs with Mushroom and Oyster Ingredients 600 gm spare ribs                                                              8 Shitake mushrooms, soaked overnight and stemmed 6 dried oysters, soaked in hot water for 5 mins. 4 to 5 slices of young ginger Rock sugar to taste 1.1/2 Tbsp dark soya sauce 1  Tbsp light soya sauce 1.1/2 tsp cornflour + 2 Tbsp water to thicken Seasalt to tast Method Marinate the spare ribs with 1/2  te

Chinese New Year is not too far away and a quick look at the supermarkets and bakeries revealed that the prices of the festive goodies have gone up again.  Prices of  food stuff have gone up drastically and look like they are here to stay.  It's much more economical  to DIY when you know how to do so....... These Pineapple 'Closed' Tarts are a bit different from the  Nastar   I posted previously.  Shaping the tarts this way is less time consuming and moreover they taste just as good! Recipe for Pineapple Tarts ~ CNY 2013 Ingredients  125 gm butter/margarine 25 gm icing sugar 1 egg yolk 190 gm plain flour 1 Tbsp cornflour 1/8  tsp salt 1/4  tsp vanilla 370 gm pineapple paste 1 egg yolk + 1  tsp water = egg glaze Method Sift the plain flour with salt, mix in the cornflour, set aside. Cream the butter with icing sugar till light, add in the egg yolk, vanilla.  Mix well. Add in the flour and cornflour mixture till just combined .

I was surfing the net for a lemon poppy seed bundt cake and this recipe  from TLC caught my eye.  Curious about the the recipe as it called for more egg whites, as well as the method, I set off to try.  After adding in the milk and vanilla, the batter curdled and I had to quickly add in flour to absorb the moisture.   I was quite dubious about the taste and texture of this cake then.  As I've brushed on lemon glaze I waited patiently till the next day before I could cut it up..........     Not the least bit disappointed ...... because the cake turned out moist although a bit dense but it was crunchy and tangy ..... full of lemony oomph! Recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake   (adapted from TLC with modifications) Ingredients 4 oz caster sugar (reduced from 8 oz)      4 oz butter 1 egg 2 egg whites 3/4  cup low fat milk 2 tsp vanilla 8 oz plain flour 2  tsp baking powder 1/8  tsp salt 2  Tbsp poppy seeds, lightly toasted 1  Tbsp grated lemo

My family likes to eat meat floss, be it chicken or pork and this is getting to be very expensive these days especially with the approaching Chinese New Year.  So I tried my hands to make this with the slow cooker to  soften the meat and was quite pleased with the result.  If you don't mind the hours of standing and frying the meat till it becomes floss, then it's not a bad idea to make this a gift for CNY! I made a peanut butter sandwich with this pork  floss or you may opt to serve it with white porridge.  Do keep the floss in a container and store it in the fridge as there's no added preservative. Recipe for Pork Floss Ingredients 700 gm pork shoulder                3.1/2  Tbsp light soya sauce 150 gm rock sugar or to taste 1 tsp dark soya sauce 3/4 cup water Some seasalt and pepper to marinate the pork Method  Marinate the meat with some salt and pepper for an hour or more. Put the meat into a slow cooker, add in all the sauces, rock

This cake was made some time ago from home grown mango given by a friend.  No idea about the specie of the mango but the skin was green in colour with very meaty flesh.  Yummy cake for any time of the day!     Recipe for Mango Upside Down Cake   ( adapted from BBC Goodfood magazine with slight modifications ) Ingredients 2 large mangoes                                                                        175 gm butter 120 gm sugar (reduced from 175 gm) 3 eggs 225 gm plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 75 ml milk Pinch of salt 2  Tbsp lemon juice to toss onto the mangoes 3  Tbsp mango bits Caramel 40 gm butter, 50 gm brown sugar, 1 Tbsp water Method Lightly grease  a solid based 22 cm round cake tin. ( I used a loaf pan.) Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt, set aside. Put the brown sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat to allow the sugar to dissolve.  Bring to the b

This is an ABC soup with a difference.  Yes, there's fish in this soup ..... added a block of eel in it.  Curiosity was what prompted me to cook this soup.  I asked the fishmonger what is the best way to prepare this fish and he said that this eel makes a very tasty soup and I can't agree  more! Sweet and tasty soup with no fishy smell at all! Recipe for Eel Soup Ingredients 350 gm eel 2 carrots, cut into cubes 2 tomatoes,cut into wedges 3 onions, cut into wedges 2.5 lt of water 20  white peppercorns, crushed Seasalt to taste Method Clean up the fish, set aside. Put the water into a pot, bring to a boil and add in the carrots, tomatoes, onions and peppercorns. Simmer for a while and add in the eel. Cover, lower the heat to medium low and let the soup simmer for about 1.1/2 hours. Add salt to taste. Ladle and serve immediately. I'm sharing this recipe with  Recipe Box # 30  hosted by Bizzy Bakes

Had a crush on Pau after having had some dim sum brunch lately, so set out to DIY and bring forth this Chicken Mushroom Pau.  This time, the dough took a little bit longer to prove perhaps due to the gloomy, wet weather but nonetheless the end result was just as satisfactory. Recipe for Steamed Bun ~ Pau     (Please refer  ' Here '  for the recipe and method for the Pau skin) Ingredients for Chicken Mushroom filling 450 gm free range chicken, cut into bite size 10 Shitake mushrooms, washed, soaked and stemmed 250 gm turnip (sengkuang), diced 5 pips garlic, chopped 1 pc kwai far yoke in lieu of sausage, cut (optional) 1.1/2 cups water 1/2  tsp salt, light soya sauce to taste 2.1/2  Tbsp cornflour + 2 Tbsp water to thicken Seasoning 1/2  tsp each of  :  salt and dark soya sauce 1 tsp each of :  oyster sauce, sugar and light soya sauce a dash of pepper Preparation Season the chicken and mushrooms, set aside. Saute some oil with the chopped g

Happy New Year everyone!  Packed with walnuts, dates and cinnamon fragrance, this coffee cake gets it leavening from beer.  Soft and moist, this is great for breakfast as well as for tea!  Something boozy to usher in the Year 2013!    Recipe for Carlsberg Beer Coffee Cake Ingredients   12 oz plain flour                                             9 oz brown sugar   8 oz butter   2 eggs   2  tsp bicarbonate of soda   1.1/2  tsp cinnamon   2 oz lightly roasted chopped walnuts   5 oz pitted chopped dates   a pinch of salt   2 cups beer   Icing sugar  (optional) Method Sift flour with baking powder, salt, cinnamon set aside.  Dust the dates with some of this mixture. Cream butter with brown sugar till smooth and creamy. Add in eggs one at a time, mix well. Fold in  flour alternatively with the beer, blend well. Stir in walnuts and dates, mix well, scrapping from the bottom and sides of  the mixing bowl. Spoon batter into a  well gre