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

Someone posted a Pomelo cake recipe on FB recently which prompted me to give it a try.   Since pomeloes are also  citrus fruits, I adapted the recipe from my Orange Cupcake post, 'here'  and the result was a moist, not too sweet delicious pound cake which tasted much better the next day! Recipe for Pomelo Pound Cake ~ 柚子 蛋糕   Ingredients 250 gm butter 250 gm self-raising flour 179 gm caster sugar 4 eggs 2 tsp pomelo zest (add more if you wish) 85 ml blended pomelo juice a pinch of salt Method Sift the self-raising flour with the salt, keep aside. Beat butter, pomelo zest and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, mix well. Fold in the sifted flour alternating with the pomelo juice till well incorporated. Pour the  batter into a prepared loaf pan.  Lightly tap the pan on the worktop a few times to expel any air pockets. Bake in a preheated oven @ 180 deg.C for 45 mins.  Test with a

A one-stop online shopping platform ~ iprice I’m considering getting a cooker hood or cooker chimney for my kitchen and have been surfing the internet for a suitable one with regards to brand, size and of course to fit my budget.  I stumbled upon this website,   iprice    a one-stop shopping platform in South East Asia.  I was surprised that they offer a wide range of products, from household goods, apparel, health, accessories, you just name it and they have it.  And they boast of housing more than 1,000 brands under their umbrella, that’s interesting! Moreover, they also provide product information of the different brands that they have on offer, which is indeed an added advantage to online customers.   Banana Republic, Longchamp, Sony, Adidas, Converse, just to name a few, are some of the top brands available in iprice. What makes iprice different from Amazon or Alibaba is that iprice does not sell directly to customers online.  Instead they gather coupons, promotions a

This is an absolutely fuss-free, quick and easy to whip up dessert made with leftover packets of soymilk from the recent festive season.   Added in some longan and it became a most welcoming dessert to beat the heat in this scorching weather! Recipe for Longan Soymilk Agar Agar ~ 菜燕龙眼豆花 Ingredients 10 gm agar agar powder 1 litre soymilk, slightly sweetened 1/2 cup longan syrup 60 gm sugar 2 to 3 pieces of pandan/screwpine leaves, knotted 1 can of longan, cut into quarters Method In a pot, dissolve agar agar powder in soya milk. Add in longan syrup, sugar and pandan leaves.  Keep stirring and bring to a light boil over low heat. Mix in the quartered longan. Ladle the mixture into moulds, let cool. Refrigerate till ready to serve.

Arrow heads which are only available here during the Chinese New Year are much sought after for making chips during the festive season, or just slicing them up to steam with Chinese sausages or waxed meat, also available during this time of the year.   I cooked them in a stir-fry with leeks and some pork fillet.  You can also check out  another recipe which I posted some time back. Recipe for  Stir-fry arrow head  with leek and pork fillet  ~   慈菇大葱 炒 肉 片 Ingredients 150 gm pork fillet 350 gm arrow heads, about 6 2 China leeks 2 tsp oyster sauce 1/8 tsp sugar (optional) 4 cups water Salt and light soya sauce to taste 2 tsp cornflour + 1 Tbsp water to thicken Shaoxing cooking wine Method Slice up the pork fillet, season with some salt and pepper. Peel off the skin from the arrow heads and smash them up. Slice up the leeks, diagonally. Heat up the wok with some soil, light

The name 'waxed' meat or 'lap mei' can be misleading as there's no waxy stuff on the meat at all.    Instead the meat has been cured by a long process of salting, smoking and drying thus resulting in a waxy sheen on the surface.  This is the how food or rather meat was being preserved before refrigeration in the olden days.  Nowadays, Lap mei fan is a special  item on the menu of restaurants during the Chinese New Year period.   There is a selection of 'lap mei' available during this festive season, like goose or duck liver sausages, lap yoke or pork belly, pork sausages and lap arp or waxed duck.  What I'm going to share with you today is a very simple one-pot meal and I only used pork sausages and a waxed duck thigh. Recipe for Waxed Meat Rice aka 'Lap Mei Fan' ~   臘味飯 Ingredients 1.3/4 cups brown rice (rice cups) 3 cups of water 1 waxed duck thigh 2 Chinese sausages 1 Tbsp oyster sauce 12 Tbsp light soya sauce 1/2 Tb

After the Chinese New Year, there'll be so many Mandarin oranges left and I'd be scratching my head thinking what to do with them.   Normally I'd give them away but this time,  I was a bit adventurous and tried my hands at making them into marmalade.  Although it was a bit time consuming and standing in the kitchen in this heat, my efforts paid off when the marmalade turned out  great and was well received by family members.  Initially I was afraid that the marmalade wouldn't set as I've reduced the amount of sugar.  Mandarin orange marmalade works well  as a gift too and the taste is so much different from store bought ones.  One thing for sure, it has less sugar! Recipe for Mandarin Orange Marmalade  ~   橘子果 酱 (adapted from  ' here'   with modifications) Ingredients 2 kg, about 16 Mandarin Oranges 700 gm sugar  (reduced from 1.2 kg) 5.1/2 cups water  (red

I had wanted to try this cupcake  recipe for quite a while but was contemplating on the decoration for the topping.   As my family members are not keen on creamy frosting and the like, I've decided to just give it a very simple facelift.  I cut off a bit of the topmost part of the cupcake, filled it up with some fruit paste, dusted on some snow powder and lo and behold, the cake did look attractive! Intoxicating aroma, soft and moist cupcake with a juicy lychee innard! Recipe for Lychee Cupcakes (adapted from  'here'  with modification) Ingredients                                                                               3 oz self-raising flour 2 oz plain flour 2 Tbsp Hazelnut meal 4 oz butter 3.1/2 oz caster sugar 2 large eggs 6 Tbspmilk 1.1/2 Tbsp Cointreau (substitute for rose water) 12 whole Lychees (if too big, cut into halves, pat dry) Fig paste or any jam (optional) Snow powder or icing sugar for dusting Method Sift th

The method of preparing this Choc Banana Tea Bread is somewhat similar to preparing muffins and you needn't have to use your stand or handheld mixer.  All you need to do is just to mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, pour into a pan and bake.  I enjoyed it when taken warm especially the crunchy sweet sugary top! Recipe for Chocolate Banana Bread ~  巧克力香蕉面 包 Ingredients 113 gm unsalted butter, melted and cooled 230 gm plain flour 30 gm unsweetened cocoa powder 130 gm caster sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1/8  tsp salt 100 gm dark chocolate chips 2 eggs lightly beaten 1 tsp vanilla 454 gm,  net wt., very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed Demerara sugar or coarse brown sugar (optional) Method Grease and flour a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.  Set aside. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt till well combined. In a

After having stuffed in so much food during the Chinese New Year holidays, I made myself a very simple salad.  Had to make do with what was available from my larder and it turned out to be a satisfying and refreshing lunch. Not much of a recipe for this dish, just personal preference for what you'd like to put into your salad and dressing is totally up to your wishes.  But for my own reference I append below what and how I made this salad. Simple Chicken Salad Ingredients 2 chicken thighs, deboned and skin removed 1 small carrot, cut into strips 2 sticks of celery, sliced 1 small cucumber, cut into strips some fresh Coriander leaves Dressing 1 clove garlic, smashed and chopped 2 tsp sweet chilli sauce juice from 1 lime 1 Tbsp chicken stock Sugar and fish sauce to taste Garnishing Peanuts, roasted and finely chopped Lightly roasted sesame seeds Bird eye chillies, finely chopped (optional) Method Season the chicken with some salt an