The other day I bought from MPH sales, a recipe on steamed cakes. Happened that I have all the ingredients required, I steamed this cheesecake on the same day. This is very suitable for households without an electric oven. Steaming is also seen as less ‘heaty’.

INGREDIENT
250g cream cheese
150g whipping cream
80g caster sugar
100g flour
30g corn flour
4 eggs, separate yolk and white
2 tbsp chocolate emulco
1 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD
1. Whisk egg whites with half of the caster sugar until peaked.
2. Mix cream cheese with sugar until well mixed, add in egg yolks one by one, and followed by whipping cream.
3. Fold in (1) and flour batch by batch alternatively. Mix well.
4. Take out 1/4 of (3), mix well with chocolate emulco.
5. Add vanilla essence to the remaining of (3) and mix well.
6. Pour 1/3 of (5) into a lined 7″ cake tin, top with 1/3 of (4), swirl to create some pattern. Steam 10 min.
7. Repeat step 6 until all batter used up.

This macaroni is with white cream sauce. I have been trying to bake using ingredients from scratch, but finally settled with ready made cream sauce. :p This is very yummy though!

INGREDIENTS
3 cups macaroni elbow
6 scallops
8-10 prawns, shelled
1/4 red, yellow and green pepper, diced.
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 large fresh button mushrooms, cut into quaters
3/4 can of white cream sauce
1/4 pack of grated/shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 pack of mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp paprika
Salt & pepper to taste

1 bunch of asparagus, washed and break into halves.
Some olive oil and salt to taste.

METHOD
1. Cook macaroni as per instructed on pack. Drain and stir in some olive oil.
2. Marinate scallop and prawns with some pepper and salt for a few minutes.
3. Heat some oil in a saucepan, saute onion until translucent. Add in paprika, some salt and pepper.
4. Stir in pepper and mushroom and fry for a while before adding prawns and scallop.
5. Add in cream sauce, mix well until bubbles. Remove from stove, add in the cheddar cheese and half of the mozzarella.
6. Scoop the mixture into an oven proof bowl, top with the remaining mozzarella.
7. In a separate baking pan, arrange asparagus, rub in olive oil and salt.
8. Bake both the macaroni and asparagus in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 20 minutes.

Ever since my mom had heart attack, she has switched to eating this 10-grain rice instead of normal white rice. Quite delicious, not as bad as we thought. Then, in one of the healthy cookbook, one recipe turned this mixed grain rice to even more delicious.

INGREDIENT
2-3 bowls of mixed grain rice (cooked as usual)
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp Omega 3-6-9 oil (or replace with flaxseed/grapeseed oil)

METHOD
Mix all ingredient well, and serve hot. Do not heat the mixture as the benefit of the good oil will be gone once heated.

This is a healthy way of eating spinach. No oil. The miso paste also adds more nutrients. Sesame adds fragrant too! My kids who don’t like vegetables love this dish. I learnt it from one of the health book I bought recently.

INGREDIENT
1 pack of spinach
2 tbsp white sesame
1 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp Thai chilli sauce (甜辣酱)

METHOD
1. Steam or boil spinach (whole) in work till soft.
2. Drain the spinach, keep some water for the gravy.
3. Cut the spinach into about 2″ length and arrange on plate.
4. Dry-fry white sesame till slightly yellow and fragrant. Crush the sesame slightly.
5. Mix sesame with miso paste and chili sauce. Pour onto the spinach and serve immediately.

I have always wanted to make Chawan Mushi. I heard that it is very easy to make. Finally got the chance to try it last week. Yummy! With this recipe, you can make it really like the ones you eat in shop!! The only difference is what you want to add in your chawan mushi.

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
1 piece filament crabstick
2 prawns
2 pcs chicken fillet
3 shiitake mushrooms
40cc shiro dashi
400cc water

METHOD
1. Finely cut crabstick, chicken, prawn and shiitake mushroom into small pieces.
2. Stir egg slightly and strain with a fine muslin cloth.
3. Add shiro dashi, water, ingredients and egg mixture into chawan mushi cup.
4. Steam for about 10 min with cups covered. Serve immediately.

The key to success is in point 2. You must strain with the muslin cloth. I didn’t know it is so hard to squeeze the egg mixture out of the cloth. It shows how ‘unfine’ the egg is, before it is strained!

Really, really, really, yummy… BTW, even if you want to replace the chicken, prawn and crabstick with veggies, this is still not-vegetarian, because Shiro Dashi is made of fish. Vegetarian to note this.

Hubby doesn’t like it if I use ready-to-eat tomato pasta sauce, like Prego. Kids love macaroni in tomato sauce, occassionally they also ask for angel hair in tomato sauce as well. I have experimented a few times and found this recipe quite tasty. My kids love it!

INGREDIENTS
10-12 red tomatoes
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 onion, chopped
3-4 pips of garlic, finely chopped

METHOD
1. Boil a pot of water, scald the tomatoes for a few seconds. Wash in cold water. Then, the skins can be removed easily.
2. Heat some oil in wok, stir fry chopped onion until translucent. Add in garlic and sugar and stir fry a while.
3. Add whole tomatoes, basil, oregano, pepper and salt. Simmer in wok, covered, for about 30 min until tomatoes softened.
4. Mash the tomatoes with spatula.

This gives you the very basic tomato pasta sauce. Can serve hot immediately with cooked macaroni or spaghetti/angel-hair. I like to cook a lot, and keep them frozen for future usage. If frozen, can keep for a few months (but I usually use within 1-2 weeks).

When used on pasta, can add in other ingredients like meat balls, sausage, etc.

The tomatoes can be roasted instead of boiled, which gives more aroma, but I dislike that because it means more consumption of electric. LOL!

My 2 children like different things. Isabel loves noodle and Ian loves rice. Isabel hates eating, but when it comes to noodle she would eat a lot, and very fast too.

I have this simple fried noodle recipe that would make Isabel eat quickly, and easy to make. Whenever I am lazy, I would cook this. Hehehehe!

INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp dried prawn (虾米), soaked till soft and finely chopped.
2 pcs of yeemee
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 carrot, shredded
1 bunch of choy-sum
1 pip of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
[optional: 8-10 prawns shelled, or sliced fish cakes, or fish fillet, or sliced meat (pork, beef, etc)]

METHOD
1. Cook yeemee until soft, drain in cold water.
2. Heat some oil in wok, add in dried prawn and stir fry till fragrant.
3. Add in garlic and sugar, stir fry a few second before adding oyster sauce and dark soy sauce.
4. Add in carrot and veggie (plus optional ingredients if used), fry till softened.
5. Lastly, add in the cooked noodle, stir fry till even. Serve hot.

In this photo, I used some prawns and sliced fish cakes.

It is the durian season now! MIL bought a lot of durian for us, and we cannot finish them. I took the flesh of one box, make it into this delicious Durian Light Cheesecake. SIL loves it so much. Yummy!

INGREDIENT
1 slice 7″ sponge cake
250g cream cheese
3 egg yolks
150ml fresh milk
150g durian flesh
3 egg whites
50g caster sugar

METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Line a 7″ cake tin and put in the sponge cake slice to line the bottom.
3. Beat cream cheese and egg yolks at low speed until well mixed. Add fresh milk and durian flesh. Mix well.
4. In a separate clean bowl, whisk egg whites at high speed till peaked.
5. Mix egg white mixture into the cream cheese mixture in 3 batches. Mix well.
6. Pour onto sponge cake in cake tin.
7. Steam bake at 180C for 20 min. Reduce to 140C and continue baking for another 1.5 hours or until cooked.
8. Leave cake in oven for another 1 hour. Chill in fridge for 4 hours before removing it from tin and serve.

When I fried this the first time, it was very successful, and I made a few variation of it later on. This is a very easy to cook Asian/Chinese dish – Fry Fish with Ginger and Spring Onion.

INGREDIENTS
4-5 stalks of spring onion, cut to about 2″ long
1 inch of young ginger (嫩姜), thinly sliced
1 large piece of garoupa fish fillet, sliced (not too thin)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 pip of garlic, chopped
Some oil for frying

METHOD
1. Heat oil in wok, stir fry ginger, garlic and sugar until fragrant.
2. Add in oyster sauce and stir for a few seconds.
3. Add in spring onion and fish fillet, stir fry until fish is cooked (no longer translucent)
4. Add salt to taste, serve hot.

I prefer to pre-fry the fish fillet, as the fillet will be intact, flesh not easily loosen into the dish. To do that, heat a wok of oil (more, to cover all fillet), fry the fillet until slightly cooked. Drain and use in the dish above.