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

This is a very simple easy to cook dish and the slightly soupy gravy goes very well with plain white rice.  Other than spinach,  苋菜 Amaranth leaves which is 'yin choy' in Cantonese or even  枸杞 'gou qi' or Wolfberry leaves will also give equally good result. Spinach in Egg sauce  ~  蛋花菠菜 Ingredients 250 gm spinach 100 gm prawns, peeled and deveined (optional) 1 egg + 1/2 cup water or more 1/2 teaspoon cornflour + 3 tsp water 2 pips of garlic, chopped Shaoxing wine Sesame oil Salt to taste Method Season the prawns with some salt, sugar and pepper.  Set aside. Blanch the spinach in boiling water for about 3 mins.  Place in a colander and drain thoroughly.  Arrange the vegetables on a serving plate. In a wok, heat up some oil, saute the chopped garlic till fragrant, add in the seasoned prawns, stir-fry. Whisk an egg, add in some water and add into the prawns, followed by the cornflour mixture. Stir to mi...

Instead of a normal sized cake, I chose to bake these cupcakes for a close family member's birthday.   Not good into frosting, I only drizzled orange glaze icing onto the cuppies to give them a facelift.   The icing was a bit translucent but nonetheless the birthday boy was very happy with the 'small' surprise! Cranberry Orange Cupcake  ~   蔓越莓香橙杯子蛋糕 Ingredients 180 gm plain flour 100 gm caster sugar 2 large eggs 113 gm butter 1.1/2 tsp  baking powder 3/4 cup milk zest from 1 orange 60 gm dried cranberries 1 tsp vanilla a pinch of salt Orange glaze   -  50 gm icing sugar + 1 Tbsp orange juice.  Mix well to a dripping consistency. Method Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt, set aside. Beat the butter with sugar till light and creamy. On low speed, add in the eggs one at a time.  Mix well.  Add in vanilla. Gently fold in the sifted flour alternating with the milk.  (C...

A lot has been said about the nutrients and health benefits of adding turmeric to our diet.  Not only is turmeric a good source of manganese and iron, it also helps to lower blood triglycerides after a meal.  Moreover it helps to add more colour to a dish as you can see from this Turmeric Chicken dish which I'm sharing with you today. Turmeric chicken (2) ~ 黄 姜 鸡  Ingredients 650 gm chicken (3 whole leg of chicken cut to preferred sizes) 2 tsp turmeric powder 1 big onion cut into wedges 2 Tbsp coconut milk 1.1/2 cups water curry leaves salt, sugar, light soya sauce to taste Method Marinate the chicken pieces with the turmeric powder, a bit of salt and sugar for a few hours or overnight, Heat up some oil in a wok, shallow fry the chicken pieces, add in water and let cook till chicken is tender and cooked through.  Toss in the onion wedges followed by the coconut milk and curry leaves. Fine tune to taste with sugar, salt and ...

One can't  be tired of chiffon cakes and this goes for my family as well.  Chiffon cakes are light, soft and not overly fattening that will add unsightly inches around the waistline.  So, here, I'm sharing with you today, an Oreo chiffon cake which can be enjoyed any time of the day. Oreo Chiffon Cake ~  奥利奥戚风蛋糕 (adapted from  ' here'  and  'here' ) Ingredients (A) 5 egg yolks 58 gm caster sugar 75 ml canola oil 1/4 tsp salt 129/130 gm plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 92 ml milk 1/2 tsp vanilla 4 Oreo cookies, cream removed and crushed coarsely 6 whole Oreo cookies to place at the base of the pan (B)  5 egg whites        58 gm caster sugar        1/2 tsp cream of tartar Method Place 6 whole Oreo cookies onto the base of an ungreased 23 cm chiffon pan. Using a handwhisk, whisk the egg yolks, vanilla and sugar till well combined.  Add in oil, milk and mix th...

This is a 'cheat' version of curry puffs.  Why do I say 'cheat'?  Because the puff pastries were store bought.  It's very much easier to make these curry puffs snack with instant pastry for if I were to make the pastries from scratch it's going to be very tedious.  Also, shaping and baking them in a muffin pan is less time consuming.  Enjoy! Curry Chicken Puff  ~   咖哩鸡角 Ingredients 1 packet Kawan puff pastry (store bought) 300 gm chicken breast, diced into cubes 1 potato, peeled and diced into cubes 2 red onions, chopped 2 tsp curry powder (or more if you prefer it more spicy) 1 lemon grass, smashed curry leaves salt to taste 1 egg + 1 tsp water for egg wash 1/4 tsp chicken granules Method for the filling Marinate the chicken cubes with the curry powder and some salt. In a pan, saute the onions with some oil, then add in the smashed lemon grass, curry leaves, then the marinated chicken cubes. Add in the potat...

As the name implies, these snowskin mooncakes have a hint bit of orange liqueur and I used a different recipe this time.   I adapted the recipe from Ah Tze  (only made a quarter of the recipe) as I was curious to steam the wheat starch and plain flour and whether the flours will be wet and difficult to sift.  But no, after cooled, just sift through.  This is a keeper recipe for the mooncakes stayed soft and nice even after the fifth day, stored in an airtight container, chilled.  A great thank you to Ah Tze for sharing this recipe. Have a pleasant and enjoyable Mid-Autumn Festival! Cointreau liqueur snowskin mooncake ~  橙酒莲蓉冰皮月餅 Ingredients 65 gm kao fun (cooked glutinous rice flour) 17.1/2 gm wheat starch flour 17.1/2 gm ssuperfine flour 60 gm icing sugar 25 gm Crisco shortening 60 gm water 15 ml/3 tsp Cointreau liqueur Pandan/screwpine leaves (optional) Filling 250 gm lotus paste (store bought) some dri...