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

  Double boiled soup is very nutritious and there are many recipes for this kind of soup.  But very often the key ingredient for this kind of soup is chicken, be it free range or black chicken.  Some double-boiled soups that you enjoy in restaurants are herb-infused.  This time around I made this very simple yet flavouful soup with free-range chicken, dried oysters, mushrooms, seedless red dates, dried longan and wolfberries and I served this with misua.  You can opt to cook this in a slow cooker or in a double boiler pot for 2.1/2 to 3 hours on low heat.  Double boiled chicken soup with dried oyster and mushroom  ~   冬菇蚝豉炖鸡汤      Ingredients 400 gm free-range chicken 4 dried oysters, reconstituted 5 mushrooms, reconstituted and stemmed 1 Tbsp goji berries 10 dried longan 10 seedless red dates salt to taste Method Prepare a double boiler pot.   Place the chicken, red dates, dried oyster and mushrooms into the pot and add in about 1 litre of hot water.  Double boil for 2.1/2 hrs on medi

  This is a soft and moist chocolate cupcake which will augur well for breakfast or to enjoy at any time of the day.  I added jam inside the cake by poking a 'tunnel' into the cake and slowly scoop the jam in  to fill up the tunnel.  You can use any flavour of jam according to your preference but no matter what flavour or brand of jam you add in, the cake will taste real good! Chocolate Cupcakes with Jam  ~   果酱巧克力蛋糕 Ingredients 30 gm cocoa powder 110 gm plain flour 1/2 tsp sodium bicarbonate 3/4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 2 'L' eggs 90 gm caster sugar 90 gm light brown sugar 80 ml oil 1/2 cup buttermilk (milk + 1 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice to make up 1/2 cup) 2 tsp vanilla Jam of your choice to fill up the 'tunnel'  after baked  Icing sugar to dust (optional) Method Sift plain flour, sodium bicarbonate, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt into a mixing bowl.  Whisk with a ball whisk to combine thoroughly. Using a hand whisk, whisk eggs, oil, vanilla,

  This is a fuss-free  recipe to try at home and no greasy kitchen to clean.  All you need to do is to season the spare ribs and dump them with all the ingredients into a pot to cook till the ribs are tender and the sauce slighly reduced which of course is up to personal preference.  You may like to retain more sauce which will be tasty and delicious with plain white rice. Easy Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs ~  甜酸小排  Ingredients 500 gm spare ribs 1 Tbsp tomato sauce 1 Tbsp chilli sauce 2 tomatoes, chopped 3 cloves of garlic   ) 3 slices of  ginger  )  chopped 5 shallots               ) 2 tsp sugar or to taste 1/4 tsp dark soy sauce 1/2 tsp bean paste  (tau cheong) 1 tsp light soy sauve 1 tsp cornflour + 2 tsp water to thicken Method Season the ribs with some salt. Place the chopped garlic, ginger and shallots in a pot. Add in the ribs, all the sauces, sugar, bean paste and enough water to cover the ribs. Cook on medium heat and then on low.  Simmer till the ribs are tender and cooked throug

  I stumbled upon this post on how to achieve "Tall Bakery Style Muffins'' from 'Handletheheat' blog which aroused my curiosity and I was very eager to give it a try.  The batter is chilled for a few hours or overnight and can be baked straightaway.   Thus the muffins can be baked in a jiffy and you can serve warm freshly baked muffins for breakfast.  Yes, I noticed that the muffins rose fairly high and they were fluffy and moist. Overnight Almond Orange Muffins  ~    隔夜杏仁橘玛芬 Ingredients 143 gm plain flour 30 gm caster sugar 30 gm brown sugar 1/8 tsp salt 1/2 Tbsp baking powder 1/2 cup buttermilk (add 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice to make up 1/2 cup) 57 ml oil 1 large egg 2 tsp orange zest 1/2 tsp vanilla Almond slivers to sprinkle Method Sieve and whisk flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In another mixing bowl, whisk egg, oil, vanilla and buttermilk. Pour the wet ingredients (2) into the dry ingredients.  Add in orange zest.  Mix till just combine and do not ov