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

I'm a big fan of beancurd, be it beancurd puffs or beancurd sheets cooked in any manner.  Here, I'm sharing with you a very simple vegetarian dish which you can serve on the first day of  the 'Lunar New Year' which will fall on Monday, the 8th of February 2016. Recipe for Braised Beancurd Sheets ~  香菇焖豆卜 Ingredients 1 packet wet beancurd sheets 1 red capsicum - sliced 4 Shitake mushrooms, soaked and cut 6 waterchesnuts, peeled and cut small piece of ginger, sliced 1 Tbsp black bean sauce 2 tsp vegetarian oyster sauce Light soya sauce, salt and sugar to taste Sesame oil to drizzle Cornflour + water to thicken Method Lightly pan-fry the beancurd sheets and cut a strip into 3 pieces In the same pan, add some oil and saute the ginger slices with the black beans and mushrooms Add in water to simmer till the mushrooms are cooked Add in the beancurd sheets, capsicum and waterchestnuts Simmer and  test for taste Add cornflour mixture to t

These cookies are very lemony both in fragrance and flavour with crispy edges and a soft, chewy cakey centre.   Together with the delicate aroma of icing sugar, they were just irresistible after the first bite.  A word of caution though -  it was just impossible to roll the dough into balls even after I'd just taken it out of the refridgerator as due to our hot weather, the dough turned soft very quickly and it became very sticky.  So what I did was to pinch some dough and toss it into the icing or powdered sugar to coat.  Hence my cookies were not so uniform both in shape and in size! These cookies are really yummy, something different from the normal CNY cookies, so why not add this to your CNY baking list too......... Recipe for Lemon Crinkle Cookies ~   柠檬裂纹曲奇     (adapted from 'here'  ) Ingredients 250 gm plain flour 1.1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 200 gm caster sugar Zest from 2 lemons 113 gm unsalted butter 2 eggs 1/4 cup

Melting Moments make a perfect gift not only for X'mas but for other festive occasions as well. They can come in many variations.  Some are piped out into rosettes and a cherry is placed on top, some are sandwiched with cream of various flavours while some are just plain or with lemon zest and served with a dusting of icing sugar. I took the easy way out and opted for the latter :) True to its name, these cookies really crumble and melt in your mouth, so why not give it another name ... 'Crumbling Moments'! Recipe for Melting Moments -   (adapted from 'here' ) Ingredients 195 gm plain flour 60 gm cornflour 1/4 tsp salt 30 gm icing sugar 227 gm unsalted butter (if salted butter is used, omit the salt) 1 tsp vanilla Icing or powdered sugar for dusting  Method Sift or whisk the flour and cornflour, set aside. Beat the butter till creamy. Add in the icing sugar and vanilla, beat till incorporated. Add in the dry ingredients

To kick-start 2016, I'm sharing with you a sweet and delectable chocolate slice.  Adding some fizzy cola to this chocolatey slice not only makes it soft and moist and with the nutty topping, it's just impossible not to go for a second helping. Recipe for Coca Cola Chocolate Slice ~   可乐巧克力片 Ingredients 115 gm plain flour     70 gm caster sugar 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 large egg, whisked 1/4 cup buttermilk  (milk + 1/4 Tbsp of lemon juice/vinegar to make up 1/4 cup) 3/4 tsp vanilla 57 gm butter 15 gm cocoa powder 1/4 cup canola/sunflower oil 1/2 cup coca cola pinch of salt                          Frosting 70 gm icing sugar, sifted 57 gm butter, melted 10 gm cocoa powder 2 Tbsp coca cola 3/4 tsp vanilla 50 gm toasted nibbed almonds Method Pour melted butter into sifted icing sugar, whisk well. Method Whisk flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a mixing bowl.   Whisk egg, buttermilk and vanilla in anot