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

  This is a very common restaurant  chicken dish ~ Chicken fried with Cashew Nut.   In Cantonese it's called 'Kung Po Kai Ting'.  'Kung Po'  means that  the dish is a bit spicy with add-on dried chillies and 'Kai Ting' means diced chicken.  The capsicum and the cashew nuts make the dish crunchy and this dish pairs very well with a bowl of hot white rice.  Recipe for Cashew Nut Chicken ~ Kung Po Kai Ting Ingredients 250 gm chicken thigh, deboned and cubed 5 dried chillies 4 slices young ginger 1 capsicum, cut 1 onion, cut into wedges Cashew nuts lightly toasted Sesame Oil Seasoning for chicken cubes    1/2  tsp each of salt and sugar 1 tsp each of oyster and light soya sauce 1/4  tsp dark soya sauce 3/4  tsp cornflour a dash of pepper Method Saute the dried chillies and ginger till fragrant with sesame oil. Toss i...

  Canned fruits were spoilt for choice during the Chinese New Year and in order not to miss out on the attractive bargains,  I bought some home as gifts or for dessert.  Chanced upon a recipe for Pineapple Bundt Cake calling for undrained crushed canned pineapple and I was game for an experiment!   Although the texture was a bit dense, it wasn't a disappointment as the cake was moist, soft and  full of pineapple flavour. Recipe for Pineapple Bundt Cake ( adapted from tasteofhome.com with slight modification ) Ingredients 8 oz butter 7 oz caster sugar 2 eggs 2 egg whites 2  tsp lemon juice 11 oz plain flour 1  tsp baking powder 14 oz crushed pineapple with juice (I blended them) A pinch of salt Glaze :  4 Tbsp icing sugar +  3 tsp lemon juice, mix well.   Method  Blend the pineapple with juice, set aside. Sift the flour with baking powder and salt, set aside. Crea...

I chanced upon a recipe from Joanie for Guinness Stout Brownies and since I had all the ingredients at hand, I didn't hesitate to give it a try.  I had baked cakes and bread with Stout, so why not add a Brownie to the list....mmm These crust cracked  Brownies are superb, moist and full of choco flavour but without the slightest  trace of stout at all, which means you can indulge in them at any time of the day! Recipe for Guinness Stout Brownies (adapted from Joanie with slight modification) Ingredients 1 can of Guinness Stout 12 oz chocolate, chopped 8 oz butter 1 cup/8 oz brown sugar (reduced from 1.1/2 cups) 3 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 4 oz plain flour 1/8  tsp salt Icing sugar Method Bring stout to the boil with 2 oz brown sugar, simmer till 3/4 cup.  Let cool. Sift the flour with the salt, set aside. Microwave chocolate and butter, stirring in between till melted. Whisk eggs with the balance of brown sugar in a m...