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

I've tasted vanilla slice before but not Kaya Slice.  My first taste of Kaya Slice was at a fusion cafe in Perth and the combination was truly wonderful.  So when I returned from my vacation, I just had to give it a try with my homemade kaya and believe me, it's real yummy especially if you are a kaya fan.  Serve this as a dessert to jazz up your reunion dinner during this coming Chinese New Year! Kaya Slice ~   咖椰片 Ingredients 2 pieces of 8 inch sq frozen puff pastry Homemade kaya/coconut egg jam Icing sugar to dust Method Defrost the frozen pastries. Place a puff pastry onto a parchment lined pan.  Prick holes with a fork to prevent it from blowing up. Bake in a preheated oven @ 180 deg.C for 15 to 20 mins. till brown. Remove from oven and place a pan on top and gently press down to give a flat surface. Repeat with the other pastry. Cut pastry into 2 halves to make 4 halves. Spread a  generous amount of k...

What do you do when you're told last minute that you are eating alone?   That was what happened to me recently and fortunately I had some chicken breast meat, a Japanese cucumber and some rice vermicelli.  So I just mixed all these together and  topped with some homemade sauce and lightly toasted cuttle fish, whipped up this salad...... Yum! Rice vermicelli and cuttle fish salad ~   米粉和墨鱼沙拉 Ingredients 2 pcs dried cuttle fish, lightly toasted and shredded 150 gm rice vermicelli, blanched and drained 100 gm chicken breast meat 2 kaffir lime leaves, cut finely 2 shallots, sliced thinly 1 Japanese cucumber, seeds removed and sliced Seasoning for chicken - season with some salt, a bit of sugar, pepper Homemade dressing 2 bird eye chillies, cut 1 heaped Tbsp peanut butter (creamy or chunky) 1 Tbsp honey 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce lightly toasted sesame seeds to garnish Method Poach or steam ...

I was introduced to this dish when we dined out recently and the waitress recommended that this would pair very well with white porridge.  I've never thought of a dried shrimp salad and naturally we were game to give it a go.  True to what she said, this dish did go very well with the porridge and I tried to replicate it at home.   This is indeed delicious and can double up as an appetiser as well.   Think it will be a good accompaniment with a glass of cold Beer too! Dried Shrimp Salad ~  虾米沙拉 Ingredients 150 gm tiny dried shrimps 1 onion, sliced 3 bird eye chillies, cut 6 limau kasturi/limes 6 tsps sugar or to taste Method With some oil, pan-fry the dried shrimps until they pop up and fragrant. Dish out into a mixing bowl. Squeeze out the juice from the limes and mix with the sugar till sugar is dissolved. Mix in the sliced onion and toss in the chillies. Pour the lime juice into the mixture and mix well.  Fine tune to des...

With only a few ingredients like snow fungus, sweet potato and some rock sugar, you can easily whip up a decent dessert.  This dessert can be served chilled or warm, after a meal or you can enjoy it at any time of the day.   This cooling dessert  is very much more look forward to especially when we had to tolerate the current hot, humid heat. This is with some beaten egg whites Snow Fungus with Sweet Potatoes  ~   雪耳番薯糖水 Ingredients 1 sweet potato, about 200 g, cut into small pieces 1 piece snow fungus, about 30 g  2.1/2 litres water Cane rock sugar to taste 2 egg whites, beaten  (optional) Pandan/screw pine leaves Method Soak the snow fungus in water till it becomes soft,   Snip off and discard the yellow hard part on the under side of the snow fungus.  Cut up the snow fungus into very tiny parts. In a pot, bring the water to a boil, add in the knotted pandan leaves and snow fungus.  Let it...

I was watching a HK TVB drama and there was this mention of 'Drunken Chicken'.  To satisfy my curiosity, I googled and found quite a number of different versions of preparing this dish.   But I was attracted to the 'rolled' type of Drunken Chicken as they look very pretty.  This is normally served as an appetiser and can be kept refrigerated for about ten days and yet retain their texture and flavour. Drunken Chicken ~  醉鸡 (adapted from 'here' with modification) Ingredients 3 whole leg of chicken, debone but skin intact, bones for stock 4 cups of water 2 pcs of ginger 1 stalk of spring onions 1 tsp salt Brine 1.1/2 cups of chicken stock at room temperature 1/3 cup Shaoxing wine 2 tsp sugar 1.1/2 tsp sea salt 1 Tbsp Goji berries, rinsed and pat dry 2 pcs Tong Quai, break into small pieces 6 pcs Ginseng 1 tsp sesame oil Method Bring 4 cups of water to the boil, add in the ginger, spring onions, chicken bones and...