Mango Yogurt muffin

Since I have baking for quite a while, now at least I know how to mix and match with the overstock in my kitchen, I got this idea to bake mango yogurt muffin when I try to figure out as how to finish up the excess stock of mangoes and soon to expire yogurt.

Mango Yogurt muffin*makes 12 muffins
(printable recipe)
125g unsalted butter
150g cake flour
110g sugar
200g chopped fresh mango
100g yogurt (natural flavour)
2 eggs (medium)
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt

1. Beat butter, salt and sugar till pale and creamy.
2. Add egg one at a time, mix well.
3. Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda, add in yogurt, combine well
4. Add in chopped mango, and lightly mix well.
5. Spoon batter into a muffin pan, sprinkle some chopped mango on top.
6. Bake at preheated oven 180c for 25mins or till golden brown.

Happy Baking !!

Penang Char Koey Teow (fried flat rice noodles)

How to cook a plate of yummy Penang Char Koey Teow? A very famous local street food in Penang,Malaysia, a simple stir fry flat rice noodles.

First check the ingredients:-

1) Fresh Koey Teow (flat rice noodles), checked

2)Bean sprouts and chives, checked

3)Fresh cockles (Xi Ham-in Hokkien), checked

4) Fresh prawns, checked

5)Chinese sausages, checked

6)Chili paste, chopped garlic, pre-mixed sauce, checked

Recipe adapted from Obhin (original from Wendy), they advised to cook plate by plate but not big wok at one go. So I pretended myself like a hawker and asked my internal customer (my family ) their preference, and cook plate by plate. I made slightly changes to recipe, anyway, Thanks Ohbin and Wendy for kind sharing.

Penang Char Koey Teow (stir fried flat rice noodles)
(printable recipe)

Pre-mixed sauce
In a bowl, mix below seasonings and stir well:-
1/3 cup light soy sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1tsp oyster sauce
1tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
2tsp salt


Ingredients for a plate (per pax)

200-250g fresh Koey Teow (flat rice noodles), loosen it
2tbsp cooking oil ( I use lard oil)
1tbsp chopped garlic
few fresh prawns (personal preference)
some bean sprout (personal preference)
few slices of Chinese sausages (personal preference)
few fresh cockles
some Chinese chives (personal preference)
Chili paste ( I use homemade chilli paste)
1 egg

Method (Fast –appx 3mins, High heat)

1. Heat up a wok over high flame, add a table spoon of oil.
2. Add garlic, stir few seconds, then add in Chinese sausage, prawns and chilli paste, quickly mix well
3. Add koey teow, immediately follow with a 1~1.5 table spoon of the pre-mixed sauce, stir to coat well.
4. Stir the koey teow to the side of the wok, grease the middle of the wok with 1tbsp of oil, drop an egg.
5. Cover the egg with the koey teow, add 1tbsp of pre-mixed sauce, quickly stir and mix well.
6. Last add in cockles, bean sprout and chives.
7. Stir to mix well, remove from heat and serve hot.

Happy Cooking!!

Zoo Negara

I brought my kids to Zoo Negara yesterday since it was a Public Holiday (Wesak). And this is also my own rule for every my kid must visit Zoo at least once, as to let them get to know how the animals looks like. . So this was my 3rd times but for youngest son Desmond was 1st time to Zoo, he was really excited to get to know all animals in the Zoo, but my daughter felt so boring as she has been to Zoo for 3 times already, hehehe...
This zoo still looks the same when every time I visited, the only thing difference is the animals are getting older, hahaha..

Roasted five-spice chicken and Turmeric rice

At first I think to cook Hainanese fried chicken rice, but a bit hesitate to fry the whole bird of chicken and very oily, end up I roasted the chicken and cooked turmeric rice, something simple and delicious.

This time, the rice is just perfect, fluffy and not too wet.

Roasted five spices chicken and Turmeric rice (from Nasi Lemak Lover)
(printable recipe)

Roasted five-spice chicken

1.5 kg chicken, cut into 6 big pieces

Marinate chicken with below:-
Use a mortar and pestle to pound below to a coarse paste and extract juices:-
2” ginger
10 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp white pepper powder
1 tsp salt or to taste
2tbsp honey

1. Marinate chicken pieces with all ingredients for 2 hours
2. Arrange chicken on a baking pan, cover with aluminium foil.
3. Bake at preheated oven at 180c for 30mins.
4. Remove foil and bake at 200c for 20mins or until golden brown.
5. Serve with Turmeric rice.

Turmeric rice

4 cups rice
1/2tsp turmeric powder
1 and ½ tsp of salt
1tsp chicken stock powder
750ml water
2 shallots, sliced
5 slices of ginger
Few pandan leaves (screwpine leaves)

1. Heat 2tbsp oil in a wok, sauté shallots and ginger.
2. Add in rice and all seasonings, quickly mix well and turn off heat.
3. Transfer rice to a rice cooker, add in water and pandan leaves, set to cook.
4. Sprinkle some fried shallots and serve with roasted five spices chicken.

Chili dipping sauce

4 fresh red chillies
1” ginger
4 cloves garlic
2 Kasturi lime, finely grate the rind, and extract the juices
¼ salt
¼ sugar

1. Blend all above ingredients with some water.
2. Serve with roasted five spices chicken and turmeric rice

Happy Cooking !!

Sweet Potato Soup

I like to cook sweet potato soup especially during lunch time, quick and easy, and best to eat with a plate of fried mee hoon (rice vermicelli) .

This is too easy to cook, thus no recipe need to be provided. Just add sweet potatoes pieces in a big pot of water, add few slices of young ginger and pandan leaves (screwpines leaves), cook for about 30mins over medium flame and add sugar to taste.

Happy Cooking !!

Deep fried sweet and sour fish

I don't know much about fish, usually my mom help me to buy fresh fish from my kampung (my hometown is a small fishing village), she help to clean and cut and freeze it for me. The other day when I went back to hometown, my mom told me she managed to buy for me a very fresh and big fish, about 5kg in weight, the fish name in Mandarin is 马友鱼, sorry I don't know the English name, this is the fish image (Latest update-Thanks Pete informed me the English name of this fish, it is called as Threadfin or Kurau in Malay).
Since the fish is too big for my family at one go, I separated into four parts, I use the 1st part (fish body) to cook this yummy sweet and sour fish. Later I will share with you how I cook for the rest of the fish parts.

-Deep fried fish meat, vegetables and sauce. Just eating the deep fried fish meat, also really good, sweet and juicy.

Deep fried sweet and sour fish
(printable recipe)

800 fish meat, cut into cubes
1tbsp light soy sauce
1/2tsp salt
1tsp sesame oil
A dash of white pepper powder

1 green capsicum, cut into wedges
1 yellow capsicum, cut into wedges
1 onion, cut into wedges
1 fresh tomato, cut into wedges
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 slices of young ginger

Sauce (combine in a bowl)
5tbsp tomato ketchup
3tbsp vinegar
2tbsp sugar
1tbsp chilli sauce
1tbsp oyster sauce
½ tsp salt or to taste
¼ cup water (or adjust accordingly)

•1/2 tsp corn flour/tapioca flour, mixed with 1 tbsp water for thickening

1. Season fish meat with soy sauce, salt, sesame oil and set aside for 10mins.
2. Coat fish with corn starch/tapioca flour. Deep-fry in hot oil till cooked and crispy. Remove and place on a serving plate.
3. Heat up oil, saute garlic and gingers until fragrant.
4. Add yellow and green capsicums and tomato. Stir-fry briskly. Pour in sauce ingredients and bring to a boil.
5. Add thickening, then add in fried fish and mix well.
6. Dish out and serve hot.

** I can't get good and clear photo especially when I take picture for the dishes that I cooked for dinner, due to the low light condition in the kitchen during evening time. So no choice, I need to use very high ISO (ISO 800) and use the Canon software to do some adjustment, please accept this poor pictures..

Happy Cooking !!

Layer yogurt sponge cake with blueberries filling

My son Lucas couldn't believe this cake is made by me, I asked him why? he said he never see me decorate cake with this kind of jelly, he thought I bought from outside bakery shop, hehehe...

this time I use store bought piping jelly to decorate this cake.

Layer yogurt sponge cake with blueberries filling
(printable recipe)

4 egg yolks (medium)
10g Castor sugar

4 egg whites (medium)
60g Castor sugar
1tsp corn flour

120g Natural yogurt (or other flavours)
60g Cake flour/Superfine flour
10g Corn flour
40g Corn oil

1) Beat egg yolks and sugar till thick and pale in color, add in yogurt and mix well, set aside.
2) Beat egg white until foamy, gradually add in sugar and continue beat till fluffy. Add in corn flour and beat till soft peaks.
3) Stir a big spoonful of egg whites mixture into the egg yolk batter and gently stir with hand whisk to lighten the batter.
4) Then with a spatula, scoop gradually the remaining egg whites mixture and fold well with egg yolk batter.
5) Sift cake flour and corn flour, and gradually fold into batter.
6) Last add in corn oil and fold gently into batter.
7) Bake in pre-heated oven at 160c for 40mins.

To assemble the layer cake- cut into equal size, spread a layer of blueberries filling. Decorate with store bought piping jelly (I mix plain piping jelly with rose syrup)

-keep in fridge for later consume..

Happy Baking !!

Banana and coconut jam (Kaya) Pizza

Since i still have pandan coconut jam (Kaya), i imitated this banana and Kaya pizza at home which is our family's favourite pizza from Domino's Pizza.

-Forgot to add cheese for the 1st time, but we prefer to have cheese, taste better.

Banana and coconut jam (Kaya) pizza
(printable recipe)
250g high protein flour or bread flour
80ml milk
30ml water
1/2tsp salt
1tbsp sugar
1tsp instant yeast
1tbsp butter

Banana, sliced
Kaya (coconut jam)
Mozzarella cheese, grated

1. Mix yeast with 1tbsp of warm water and leave aside till frothy (about 30mins). Then add milk, sugar and salt and mix well.
2. Sift flour into a mixing bowl, add yeast and milk mixture, slowly add in water and knead till smooth.
3. Add in butter and knead till elastic. Leave to prove till double in bulk (normally about 1 hour).
4. Punch down and leave to prove for another 15mins.
5. Roll out, pull gently into small round sheet (you can adjust thickness and size to your preference).
6. Place onto a greased baking tray, brush Kaya on the pizza base, arrange banana slices and sprinkle the grated cheese on top.
7. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 20 minutes or till golden brown. Remove and serve hot.

Happy Baking !!

Braised soy sauce pork (Tau Yu Bah)

This is a typical grandmother and old fashion of Chinese dish, as Hokkien people like me call this dish as "Lo Bah" or "Tau Yu Bah". When I was a kid, I just like to mix the gravy with rice, and like the hard-boiled eggs but not the pork belly.

This time I use a very old (at least 50years old) and the only one bowl left from my grandmother time to present this authentic Chinese soy sauce pork (Tau Yu Bah) to you..

Braised soy sauce pork (Tau Yu Bah)
(printable recipe)

500g pork belly, whole piece (Hokkien people call this as "Bah")
6 hard-boiled eggs
2 firm tofu
6 fried beancurd pork rolls, refer recipe here, optional
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
6 cloves
2 whole garlic, washed and with outer layer skins
1 litre water
3tbsp cooking oil

Seasonings
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp light soy sauce (Hokkien people call this as "Tau Yu")
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp salt or to taste

1. Heat oil in a wok, add in sugar and stir fry till sugar melted and turned brown.
2. Add in garlic, star anise, cloves and cinnamon, mix well.
3. Add in pork belly, slight fry both sides.
4. Add in water, and follow by the rest of hard-boiled eggs, firm tofu and fried beancurd pork rolls.
5. Add in the seasoning and cook over low flame for 1hour or until gravy become thicker.
6. Serve with rice and dip with chilli sauce.

Happy Cooking !!