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

A Nigella Lawson recipe, this chocolate orange loaf cake had been tried by many bloggers and all of them agreed that this recipe is for keeps.   This cake is moist, soft  and full of orangy flavour which is  befitting for breakfast or for tea.  To give it a facelift, I just sprinkled some Demerara sugar on top. Recipe for Chocolate Orange Loaf cake  ( adapted from   Anncoojournal ) Ingredients 160 gm soft butter 2 Tbsp golden syrup 70 gm brown sugar 115 gm plain flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 3 Tbsp Valrhona cocoa powder 2 eggs 60 ml orange juice Zest from 2 oranges Method Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, set aside. Sift the plain flour with baking powder and cocoa powder, mix well. Beat butter with the syrup and sugar until you have a fairly smooth caffe Americano cream, though the sugar will have a bit of grit about it. Add 1 tablespoonful of flour mixture before beating an egg...

  This is a very simple and homely dish which I tasted during my recent trip to Beijing.  It was done without onions but I added in some to enhance the taste.  This was well received as it was light and refreshing with the added crunch from the cloud ears and not so oily as the other dishes which we had. Recipe for Stir-fry eggs with cloud ears and onions Ingredients 10 gm cloud ears in its dried state, soaked, stemmed and cut 2 eggs lightly beaten + some salt and pepper 1 onion, sliced Drizzle of light soya sauce Method Lightly beat up the eggs and add in some salt and pepper. Heat up some oil in a wok, stir-fry the onions for a while, dish out. Toss in some cloud ears, stir-fry.  Push the cloud ears aside and pour in the eggs, give it a quick stir and mix with the cloud ears. Toss in the pre-fried onions, add a drizzle of light soya sauce and mix well. Dish out and serve immediately.

These gorgeous see-through lacy almond cookies caught my eye when I was surfing the internet for something light, wafer sort of cookie that can go down well with my homemade ice cream.   These wafers are studded with almonds and oats though I find them to be a wee bit buttery.  You only need a teaspoon of the batter per cookie as they do spread real flat during baking, hence, you'll need to allow more spreading room. Pretty, delicate and highly addictive! Recipe for Lace Almond Cookies ( adapted from  'here'  with modifications) Ingredients 5 oz butter, melted (reduced from 2/3 cup) 3 oz brown sugar   (reduced from 1 cup) 1/4 cup light corn syrup (I used golden syrup) 1 Tbsp milk 1/4 tsp salt 4.1/2 oz rolled oats 2 Tbsp plain flour 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup/2 oz  toasted and finely chopped almonds 1 tsp lightly toasted black sesame seeds Method Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt th...

 I've no idea how to name this dish so I just call it 'Kam Heong' Chicken...... 'Kam'  is a bit spicy due to the addition of the bird eye chillies though not in abundance and also the yellowish colour coming from the turmeric.  'Heong' is fragrant because of the lemon grass and curry leaves.  This dish is not spicy hot at all and can be served to kids as well.  Must admit that it paired well with white rice and also plain bread.   Recipe for 'Kam Heong' Chicken Ingredients  4 chicken legs, cut into bite size 3 stalks of lemon grass - smashed 3 chilli padi/bird eye chillies - sliced 5 cloves of garlic 6 shallots 1 tsp turmeric powder 1.1/2  tsp jaggery powder 1.1/2  tsp dark soya sauce 1  tsp light soya sauce 1/2  tsp seasalt Curry leaves Method Blend the garlic and shallots. Marinate the chicken pieces with the blended garlic and shallots, salt, jaggery powder, turmeric powder...

Upon going through my cake pans and trays I realised that I had neglected this mini Bundt pan for quite a while.  Hmmm, time to take it out and make use of it.  These mini Bundts were soft and moist with a nutty texture and weren't overly sweet, just right for breakfast or to serve for tea.  The ingredients are a slight resemblance to that for Friands. Recipe for Hazelnut orange mixed fruit mini Bundt Ingredients 180 gm melted butter 75 gm plain flour 150 gm icing sugar 150 gm hazelnut meal 2 tsp finely grated orange rind 5 egg whites 80 gm dried cranberries (chopped) Icing sugar for dusting Method Sift flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Add hazelnut,orange rind, stir to combine. Place the egg whites into a bowl and whisk with a ball whisk till lightly frothy. Add in the hazelnut mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the melted butter and chopped cranberries, stir well to combine. Spoon mix...

Red Bean Ice Cream ... another cooling dessert much sought after in my household during this hot, hazy and humid weather.  I was very happy when it 'rained' yesterday but it was short-lived.  The rain wasn't enough even to wet the grass in my garden and I was so disappointed.  So far, there's no water rationing here in Ipoh but I'm sure that all of us will welcome any rain in the near future. Recipe for Red Bean Ice Cream Ingredients 150 gm red bean paste 150 ml milk 300ml whipping cream 50 gm caster sugar 4 egg yolks a pinch of salt Method To make the red bean paste, just boil some red beans with some sugar, once the beans are soft, smash them till fine. Place milk and cream  in a saucepan, heat gently, once milk starts to foam up a bit, remove from heat. Using a ball whisk, whisk egg yolks with sugar till  smooth. Gradually pour the cream mixture into the egg mixture, whisking continuously not to cook t...